Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
J. Willard Gibbs (1839-1903) was an American theoretical physicist and chemist known for his contributions to the fields of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. His work laid the foundation for the development of physical chemistry as a discipline. Gibbs' formulations of the laws of thermodynamics and his advancements in statistical mechanics revolutionized the understanding of energy and matter interactions.