Carnots

The Carnots were a French family notable for political and scientific contributions in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The lineage includes Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot (1753–1823), a general, engineer, and politician known as the Organizer of Victory for his role in reorganizing the Revolutionary Army and his service during the Directory and Napoleonic periods. His son Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) was a physicist whose reflections on heat engines laid the groundwork for thermodynamics; his work introduced the Carnot cycle and the principle that no engine operating between two heat reservoirs can be more efficient than a Carnot engine. Another son, Hippolyte Carnot (1801–1893), was a politician and writer who participated in republican politics and education policy in 19th-century France.

The surname remains associated with thermodynamics through the terms named after Sadi: the Carnot cycle and Carnot efficiency, which describe the theoretical limits of heat-engine performance. The Carnots thus occupy a notable place in both French political history and the development of physical science.