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WonderClimate experiment biography

In 1856 the American scientist and women's rights campaigner Eunice Newton Foote showed that a glass cylinder of carbon dioxide grew hotter in sunlight than one of ordinary air, and took longer to cool. She suggested that more of this gas in the air would warm the Earth.

Eunice Newton Foote

ClimateScienceBiography

The story behind the card

Foote was an amateur scientist living in Seneca Falls, New York. In 1848 she signed the Declaration of Sentiments at the Seneca Falls Convention, the first meeting devoted to women's rights, and helped prepare its proceedings for publication. For her experiment she used an air pump, two glass cylinders and four thermometers, and compared dry air, moist air, carbon dioxide and hydrogen in sunshine and in shade. Her paper was read at the August 1856 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science by Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution; why she did not present it herself is unclear. Three years later John Tyndall measured how gases absorb infrared heat, the mechanism behind the greenhouse effect, and he received the credit. Foote's paper was largely forgotten until the 21st century.

Türkçe oku
Amerikalı bilim insanı ve kadın hakları savunucusu Eunice Newton Foote, 1856'da karbondioksit dolu bir cam silindirin güneşte sıradan havayla dolu olandan daha çok ısındığını ve daha geç soğuduğunu gösterdi. Havadaki bu gaz arttıkça Dünya'nın da ısınacağını öne sürdü.

Foote, New York eyaletindeki Seneca Falls kasabasında yaşayan amatör bir bilim insanıydı. 1848'de, kadın haklarını konu alan ilk toplantı olan Seneca Falls Kongresi'nde Duygular Bildirgesi'ni imzaladı ve kongre tutanaklarının yayına hazırlanmasına katkıda bulundu. Deneyinde bir hava pompası, iki cam silindir ve dört termometre kullandı; kuru havayı, nemli havayı, karbondioksiti ve hidrojeni güneşte ve gölgede karşılaştırdı. Makalesi Ağustos 1856'da Amerikan Bilimi İlerletme Derneği'nin toplantısında, Smithsonian Enstitüsü'nden Joseph Henry tarafından okundu; Foote'un neden kendisinin sunmadığı bilinmiyor. Üç yıl sonra John Tyndall, gazların kızılötesi ısıyı, yani sera etkisine yol açan ışınımı nasıl soğurduğunu ölçtü ve buluşun onuru ona kaldı. Foote'un makalesi 21. yüzyıla kadar büyük ölçüde unutuldu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Eunice Newton Foote
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