Sadi Carnot was a child of the Industrial Revolution. Steam power was widely used in manufacturing and mining by his birth in 1796, and the first steamboat and first steam railroad locomotive were invented while he was still a child. Steam technology was transforming society, and Europe was at the center of the action — a Silicon Valley for steam.
Carnot’s father was a prominent French engineer, so it’s not surprising that Carnot became an engineer himself and took on one of the biggest practical challenges of his time: how to make steam engines more efficient. Carnot’s great insight was that heat produced motion for doing work by dropping from a high temperature to a lower temperature.