
The animate engine (vs inanimate engine) model used to answer the typical difficulties encountered when attempting to explain animal existence using thermodynamic (steam engine) theory, e.g. how to label the working substance of animal existence, or the perceptual "life" vs "non-life" divide, death, etc. [1]

The animate engine (vs inanimate engine) model used to answer the typical difficulties encountered when attempting to explain animal existence using thermodynamic (steam engine) theory, e.g. how to label the working substance of animal existence, or the perceptual "life" vs "non-life" divide, death, etc. [1]

In animate thermodynamics, animate engine (or organic engine), as compared to an inanimate engine (or inorganic engine), i.e. steam engine, is a name use by English biologist James Johnstone in 1921 to define an animal in thermodynamic terms, in such a way as to differentiate a perceptual divide between life and non-life or animate from inanimate. [1]

References
1. Johnstone, James. (1921). The Mechanism of Life in Relation to Modern Physical Theory (pg. 69). Longmans, Green & Co.