Chapter I: Front Matter

SADI CARNOT

AT THE AGE OF 17.

(From a Portrait by Bailly, 1813.)
]

REFLECTIONS
ON THE
MOTIVE POWER OF HEAT.

_FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH OF_
N.-L.-S. CARNOT,
_Graduate of the Polytechnic School_.

ACCOMPANIED BY
AN ACCOUNT OF CARNOT’S THEORY.
BY SIR WILLIAM THOMSON (LORD KELVIN).

EDITED BY

R. H. THURSTON, M.A., LL.D., DR.ENG’G;
_Director of Sibley College, Cornell University_;
“_Officier de l’Instruction Publique de France_,”
_etc., etc., etc._

_SECOND, REVISED, EDITION_.
FIRST THOUSAND.

NEW YORK:
JOHN WILEY & SONS.
LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED.
1897.

Copyright, 1890,
ROBERT H. THURSTON.

ROBERT DRUMMOND, ELECTROTYPER AND PRINTER, NEW YORK.

DEDICATED

TO

=Sadi Carnot,=

PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC,

THAT DISTINGUISHED MEMBER OF THE PROFESSION OF ENGINEERING WHOSE WHOLE
LIFE HAS BEEN AN HONOR TO HIS PROFESSION AND TO HIS COUNTRY;

AND WHO, ELEVATED TO THE HIGHEST OFFICE WITHIN THE GIFT OF THE

FRENCH NATION,

HAS PROVEN BY THE QUIET DIGNITY AND THE EFFICIENCY WITH WHICH HE HAS
PERFORMED HIS AUGUST DUTIES THAT HE IS A WORTHY MEMBER OF A NOBLE
FAMILY, ALREADY RENDERED FAMOUS BY AN EARLIER SADI CARNOT, NOW IMMORTAL
IN THE ANNALS OF SCIENCE, AND IS HIMSELF DESERVING OF ENROLMENT IN A
LIST OF GREAT MEN WHICH INCLUDES THAT OTHER DISTINGUISHED ENGINEER, OUR
OWN FIRST PRESIDENT,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

CONTENTS.

I.
PAGE
THE WORK OF N.-L.-SADI CARNOT. _By the Editor_, 1

II.
THE LIFE OF N.-L.-SADI CARNOT. _By Mons. H. Carnot_, 20

III.
REFLECTIONS ON THE MOTIVE POWER OF HEAT AND ON MACHINES FITTED TO
DEVELOP THAT POWER. _By Mons. N.-L.-Sadi Carnot_, 37

IV.
ACCOUNT OF CARNOT’S THEORY. _By Sir William Thomson_ (_Lord
Kelvin_), 127