  The transition from the superconducting to the normal state in a magnetic
field was considered as a irreversible thermodynamic process before 1933
because of Joule heating. But all physicists became to consider this transition
as reversible after 1933 because of the obvious contradiction of the Meissner
effect with the second law of thermodynamics if this transition is considered
as a irreversible process. This radical change of the opinion contradicted
logic since the dissipation of the kinetic energy of the surface screening
current into Joule heat in the normal state cannot depend on how this current
appeared in the superconducting state. The inconsistency of the conventional
theory of superconductivity, created in the framework of the equilibrium
thermodynamics, with Joule heating, on which Jorge Hirsch draws reader's
attention, is a consequence of this history. In order to avoid contradiction
with the second law of thermodynamics, physicists postulated in the thirties of
the last century that the surface screening current is damped without the
generation of Joule heat. This postulate contradicts not only logic and the
conventional theory of superconductivity but also experimental results.
