Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

French physicist, the "father of thermodynamics" (1796-1832) · France · Scientists · Died at 36

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A French military engineer who published exactly one essay - in 1824, on the efficiency of heat engines - then died at 36 in obscurity. That lone work became the foundation of thermodynamics after others decoded it a decade later.

Developers Academic Mathematics Physics Web Development France Europe 19th Century

A life in dates

1832Died24 August 18321824“Nature, in providing us with combustibles on all sides, has given us the power to produce, at all times and in all places, heat and the impelling power which is the result of it.”In their wordsRéflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance (1824). Title translated as above by R.Read the whole statement

“To take away to-day from England her steam-engines would be to take away at the same time her coal and iron.”In their wordsRéflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance (1824). Title translated as above by R.Read the whole statement

“Savery, Newcomen, Smeaton, the famous Watt, Woolf, Trevithick, and some other English engineers, are the veritable creators of the steam-engine.”In their wordsRéflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance (1824). Title translated as above by R.Read the whole statement

“Notwithstanding the work of all kinds done by steam-engines... their theory is very little understood, and the attempts to improve them are still directed almost by chance.”In their wordsRéflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance (1824). Title translated as above by R.Read the whole statement

“The production of motion in steam-engines is always accompanied by...”In their wordsRéflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance (1824). Title translated as above by R.Read the whole statement

“We have just described the re-establishment of equilibrium in the caloric, its passage from a... heated body to a cooler one.”In their wordsRéflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance (1824). Title translated as above by R.Read the whole statement

1796Born1 June 1796

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

CNX Chem 16 03 Carnot

Felie Carnot 1806

In their own words 10

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

10 statements, newest first

Nature, in providing us with combustibles on all sides, has given us the power to produce, at all times and in all places, heat and the impelling power which is the result of it.
1824, Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance (1824). Title translated as above by R., Own words
Iron and heat are... the supporters, the bases, of the mechanic arts.
1824, Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance (1824). Title translated as above by R., Own words
To take away to-day from England her steam-engines would be to take away at the same time her coal and iron.
1824, Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance (1824). Title translated as above by R., Own words

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Family

Father Lazare Carnot

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

Sibling Hippolyte Carnot

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About this person

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot was born 1 June 1796, son of Lazare Carnot, a mathematician and commander in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic armies. He graduated from the École polytechnique and served as an officer in the Engineering Arm, but his family faced persecution after Napoleon's fall in 1815, which shadowed his career. In June 1824 he published Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, developing the first successful theory of maximum heat engine efficiency. The work drew little notice until 1834, when Émile Clapeyron wrote a detailed commentary that reached William Thomson and Rudolf Clausius - Thomson used it to build the absolute temperature scale, Clausius to define entropy and formalize the second law of thermodynamics. Carnot died 24 August 1832, thirty-six and largely unknown, now called the father of thermodynamics.

Country

France

Scientists from France 6

Albert Fert61.7

Victor Grignard60.8

Nicéphore Niépce61.8

Jean-Baptiste Kempf60.7 Julien Simon-Chautemps61.9

Claude-Louis Navier60.5

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