Sadi Carnot

Eldest son of revolutionary war organizer Lazare Carnot, Sadi was named after Persian poet Saadi of Shiraz. Educated at the École Polytechnique, he served as a military engineer during the Bourbon Restoration before retiring to conduct private physical experiments on steam engines in Paris.

In 1824, at age twenty-seven, Carnot published his sole book Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu, introducing the theoretical Carnot heat engine and proving that maximum efficiency depends solely on the temperature difference between heat source and condenser. His death from cholera at thirty-six caused his papers to be burned, but Lord Kelvin and Clausius later resurrected his genius.