Sadi Carnot

Sadi Carnot (full name Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot, Sadi after a Persian poet) was bom into one of the most emdite and influential families of the turbulent Napoleonic period. Sadi s father, Lazare Carnot, was a leading scientist and mathematician of his time, as well as a noted military commander who achieved high ministerial office under Napoleon. The father s profound intellectual influence on Sadi is apparent from parallels between Lazare s 1803 treatise, Fundamental Principles of Equilibrium and Movement, and Sadi s famous 1824 monograph, Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire (Reflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu), which applied similarly general and abstract analysis to purely mechanical and thermomechanical devices, respectively. Among other accomplishments of this remarkable family, Sadi s younger brother, Hippolyte, became a noted writer and statesman, and the latter s eldest son, Marie Francois Sadi Carnot, later became a president of the Third Republic. 

Carnot Sadi Nicolas Leonard (1796-1832) Fr. phys., founder of thermodynamics (Carnot cycle)... 

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