This paper was written by H. T. Odum and published in 1983. It replies to a paper written by William Silvert in 1981 that criticized Odum and Pinkerton’s 1955 paper. Odum in this paper clarifies that “The Atwood’s machine was not the basis for our general derivation but was a special case used as an elementary teaching device to make the speed regulator principle clear to those not following the derivation” (p. 71). He argues “Silvert said we used mechanical analogies to infer things about living systems. Incorrect; we used energetic formulations as the general case for which mechanical and living examples are special cases, each with special aspects” (p. 72). This misunderstanding is not uncommon in the literature on Odum’s work.
H. T. Odum. 1983b. Maximum power and Efficiency: A Rebuttal. Ecological Modeling 20/1: 71-82.