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CARNOT, SADI NICOLAS LEONHARD (1796-1...
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See also:CARNOT, SADI See also:NICOLAS LEONHARD (1796-1832) , See also:French physicist, See also:elder son of L. N. M. Carnot, was See also:born at See also:Paris on the 1st of See also:June 1796. He was admitted to the hcole Polytechnique in 1812, and See also:late in 1814 he See also:left with a See also:commission in the See also:Engineers and with prospects of rapid See also:advancement in his profession. But See also:Waterloo and the Restoration led to a second and final proscription of his See also:father; and though not himself cashiered, Sadi was purposely told off for the merest drudgeries of his service. Disgusted with an employment which afforded him neither leisure for See also:original See also:work nor opportunities for acquiring scientific instruction, he presented himself in 1819 at the examination for See also:admission to the See also:staff See also:corps (etat-See also:major) and obtained a lieutenancy. He then devoted himself with astonishing ardour to See also:mathematics, See also:chemistry, natural See also:history, technology and even See also:political See also:economy. He was an enthusiast in See also:music and other See also:fine arts; and he habitually practised as an amusement, while deeply studying in theory, all sorts of athletic See also:sports, including See also:swimming and See also:fencing. He became See also:captain in the Engineers in 1827, but left the service altogether in the following See also:year. His naturally feeble constitution, further weakened by excessive study, See also:broke down finally in 1832. An attack of scarlatina led to See also:brain See also:fever, and he had scarcely recovered when he See also:fell a victim to See also:cholera, of which he died in Paris on the 24th of See also:August 1832. He was one of the most original and profound thinkers who have ever devoted them-selves to See also:science. The only work he published was his Reflexions sur la puissance motrice du See also:feu et sur See also:les See also:machines propres a developper See also:cette puissance (Paris, 1824). This contains but a fragment of his scientific discoveries, but it is sufficient to put, him in the very foremost See also:rank, though its full value 'was not recognized until pointed out by See also:Lord See also:Kelvin in 1848 and 1849. Fortunately his See also:manuscripts had been preserved, and extracts were appended to a reprint of his Puissance motrice by his See also:brother, L. H. Carnot, in 1878. These show that he had not only realized for himself the true nature of See also:heat, but had noted down for trial many of the best See also:modern methods of finding its See also:mechanical See also:equivalent, such as those of J. P. See also:Joule with the perforated See also:piston and with the See also:friction of See also:water and See also:mercury. Lord Kelvin's experiment with a current of See also:gas forced through a porous plug is also given. " Carnot's principle " is fundamental in the theory of See also:thermodynamics (q.v.). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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