Marie Adolphe Carnot

Marie Adolphe Carnot

Marie Adolphe Carnot (born January 27, 1839 in Paris , † June 20, 1920 ibid) was a French chemist, mining engineer and politician. He came from a distinguished family: his father, Hippolyte Carnot , and his brother, Marie François Sadi Carnot , were politicians, Marie François became President of the Third French Republic .

Life

Marie Adolphe Carnot was born in Paris and graduated from the École polytechnique in 1860. After graduation, after a period as an engineer in Limoges, he went to the École des Mines , where he was appointed professor in 1868. From 1881 he was chief mine engineer, and from 1894 general mine inspector . In 1901 he became dean at the École des Mines, which he headed until 1907. Apart from the administrative work and the training of many engineers, he also wrote a treatise on the chemical analysis of minerals ( Traité d'analysis des substances minérales , 1898) and did research. He discovered bismuth minerals in the Corrèze department in the Limousin region . He was also one of the first to make maps of soil conditions for agriculture. He also researched the determination of fluorine in phosphates and analyzed mineral waters.

In 1899, the two French mining engineers Charles Friedel and Edouard Cumenge discovered a uranium-containing, radioactive mineral in the Rajah mine in Colorado , which Carnot was the first to analyze and which was therefore later named carnotite in his honor . He was honored for this discovery with membership in the Academy of Agriculture and the French Académie des Sciences and was commander of the Legion of Honor . At the same time he pursued a political career. In 1898 he was a member of the Conseil général de la Charente . Its chairmanship he took over from 1902 to 1908 as chairman of the Alliance Démocratique .

Web links

• Article on annales.org