Ministry of Defence Main Building (United Kingdom) each and cost £12,600. Similar figures representing "air" and "fire" were intended to be installed at the south end of the building, however these were never constructed. During the 1950s, building staff nicknamed the statues "Mr and Mrs Parkinson", after Cyril Northcote Parkinson, the Board of Trade civil servant who devised Parkinson's Law which states "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". More recently MOD staff refer to the statues as the "two fat ladies". The badge of the RAF is carved into stone columns either side of the southern entrance to the building, reflecting
Principle of maximum work reactions which are reversible on slight alteration of conditions at once invalidates the principle, for if the action proceeding in one direction evolves heat, it must absorb heat when proceeding in the reverse direction. As the principle was abandoned even by its authors, it is now only of historical importance, although for many years it exerted considerable influence on thermochemical research. Thus, to summarize, in 1875 by the French chemist Marcellin Berthelot which stated that chemical reactions will tend to yield the maximum amount of chemical energy in the form of work as the reaction progresses. In 1876, however, through