Sadi Carnot

Sadi Nicolas Léonard Carnot

Born: 1 June 1796 in Paris, France
Died: 24 Aug 1832 in Paris, France

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Sadi Carnot was the eldest son of Lazare Carnot and graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1814. He worked on the mathematical theory of heat and helped start the modern theory of thermodynamics.

In 1824 he published the only work during his lifetime which includes his description of the Carnot cycle. This work only became well known after Clapeyron published an analytic reformulation in 1834. It was incorporated into the thermodynamic theory of Clausius and Thomson.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. C di St Robert, Notice biographique sur Sadi Carnot, Atti della R Academia della scienze di Torino 4 (1868), 151-170.
  4. R H Thurston, Carnot's Reflections (1890, reprinted 1943).
  5. E Mendoza (ed.), Reflections on the motive power of fire by Sadi Carnot, and other papers on the second law of thermodynamics by E Clapeyron and R Claissius (New York, 1960). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996