Reflexions on the Motive Power of Fire

Sadi Carnot (trans, and ed Robert Fox) 1986 Manchester: Manchester University Press viii + 230 pp price £25 ISBN 0 7190 1741 6 Fox has made available to British readers the full fruits of his many years of study of Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) with this scholarly translation of the monograph of 1824, which is seen as launching thermodynamics. An extensive introduction sets the French scene within which Carnot wrote his work and also indicates its most important influences on successors.