Temporary exhibition: "2023-24 - The Carnot bicentenary is also at Le Creusot - Yesterday's scientists imagine tomorrow".

Since 2005, the Académie François Bourdon has been home to a collection of Carnot archives created by the Fondation Carnot on the initiative of Gaëtan Carnot, great-grandson of French President Sadi Carnot (1837-1894), himself the grandson of Lazare Carnot (1753-1823), born in Nolay, a village between Beaune and Le Creusot, the Great Carnot, Organiser of Victory who has been buried in the Pantheon since 1889, and nephew of Sadi Carnot (1796-1832), the founder of thermodynamics. The public and family archives cover almost 200 years of French political, military and scientific life.
2023 is the bicentenary of the death of Lazare Carnot, which has been designated as a national celebration, and 2024 is the bicentenary of the publication of Sadi Carnot's seminal work, "Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance" (Reflections on the motive power of fire and on the machines capable of developing this power), machines that made the reputation of the Creusot industry.
The combination of all these factors has led the Académie François Bourdon to propose a programme of events for the years 2023-2024 entitled "Carnot-Le Creusot Bicentenary - from the past to the future - Archives, Sciences and Techniques", with the aim of showcasing its archives and, as is its mission, disseminating scientific and technical culture. Our celebrations will not feed nostalgia for the past, but will look to the future... the future of the archives, the future of Sadi's message.
Never before has the Carnot collection deposited at the Académie been showcased on the Le Creusot site. The Carnot celebrations provide an opportunity to design an exhibition based on the many items it contains. A rapid inventory of the contents has enabled us to focus our research on two great scientists, Lazare Carnot, who was a politician, military leader, mathematician and physicist, and Sadi Carnot, the founder of thermodynamics, a new branch of physics at the time. By talking about them at Le Creusot, the Académie is fulfilling its mission of disseminating science and its applications, particularly in industry.