In the late eighteenth century, inventor began creating devices that would eventually evolve into the steam enging. In efforts to improve these devides, scientists studied the principles of work and energy. Through his studies, a scientist named Robert Boyle discovered that the pressure of a gas increases when the volume of its container decreases. Other scientists discovered new priciples that charaterized energy as it entered a machine or system, passed though it, and finally exited. The form of the energy coming out of a machine or system could take form of work motion, or heat loss. This became known as the science of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics proved to be a rich field of study, eventually producing four fundamental laws. The laws are not, however, called the First through Fourth laws. Rather, they are the Zeroththrough Third Laws of Thermodynamics.