在Maxwell的信件和书中,他将妖怪打开腔室的门描述为一个“有限的存在”。威廉·汤姆森 William Thomson (开尔文勋爵)在1874年的《自然》杂志上第一次用“妖”这个词来形容Maxwell的这一概念,并且表示他打算扩展这个词的含义,而不是恶意曲解。<ref>{{cite journal |author=William Thomson |year=1874 |title=Kinetic theory of the dissipation of energy |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=9 |issue=232 |pages=441–444 |doi=10.1038/009441c0 |bibcode=1874Natur...9..441T|author-link=William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |year=1879 |title=The sorting demon Of Maxwell |journal=Nature |volume=20 |issue=501 |pages=126 |bibcode=1879Natur..20Q.126. |doi=10.1038/020126a0 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=Weber>{{cite book |author=Alan S. Weber |year=2000 |title=Nineteenth Century Science: a Selection of Original Texts |publisher=[[Broadview Press]] |page=300}}</ref> | 在Maxwell的信件和书中,他将妖怪打开腔室的门描述为一个“有限的存在”。威廉·汤姆森 William Thomson (开尔文勋爵)在1874年的《自然》杂志上第一次用“妖”这个词来形容Maxwell的这一概念,并且表示他打算扩展这个词的含义,而不是恶意曲解。<ref>{{cite journal |author=William Thomson |year=1874 |title=Kinetic theory of the dissipation of energy |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=9 |issue=232 |pages=441–444 |doi=10.1038/009441c0 |bibcode=1874Natur...9..441T|author-link=William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |year=1879 |title=The sorting demon Of Maxwell |journal=Nature |volume=20 |issue=501 |pages=126 |bibcode=1879Natur..20Q.126. |doi=10.1038/020126a0 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=Weber>{{cite book |author=Alan S. Weber |year=2000 |title=Nineteenth Century Science: a Selection of Original Texts |publisher=[[Broadview Press]] |page=300}}</ref> |