"[F]rom Carnot's point of view, it is evident that the motive power of heat depends upon its being transferred from one body to another through the medium by whose change of volume or form the external mechanical effect is produced, as this medium is supposed to remain at the end of the operation in precisely the same state as at the commencement. He gives as analogous the instance of work derived from water falling from a higher to a lower level."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicolas_L%C3%A9onard_Sadi_Carnot