Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

Carnot, Nicolas Léonard Sadi (1796–1832), French physicist. Seeking to improve the efficiency of the steam engine, he devised the Carnot cycle (1824), on the basis of which Lord Kelvin and R. J. E. Clausius formulated the second law of thermodynamics. The Carnot cycle demonstrates that the efficiency of a heat engine working at maximum thermal efficiency does not depend on its mode of operation, but only on the temperatures at which it accepts and discards heat energy.

See also: Physics.