Eunice Newton Foote
First scientist to identify the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide.
Eunice Newton Foote (July 17, 1819 – September 30, 1888) was an American scientist, inventor, and advocate for women's rights. She was the first person to recognize that certain gases trap heat and to suggest that higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere could raise temperatures and alter the climate—what we now call the greenhouse effect. Foote was born in Goshen, Connecticut, and grew up in western New York, a hotbed of social movements like abolition, temperance, and women's suffrage. From ages 17 to 19, she attended the Troy Female Seminary and the Rensselaer School, where she received a thorough education in both scientific theory and hands-on lab work.
In 1841, she married lawyer Elisha Foote and settled in Seneca Falls, New York. She signed the Declaration of Sentiments and helped edit the proceedings of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first gathering focused solely on women's rights. In 1856, she published a paper showing that CO2 and water vapor absorb heat, and she hypothesized that changes in atmospheric CO2 would lead to climate shifts. This was the first physics paper by an American woman in a scientific journal. A second paper, on static electricity in atmospheric gases, followed in 1857. Though she was not a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, both papers were read at its annual conferences—the only physics papers by an American woman until 1889. She also patented several inventions.
Foote died in 1888, and her work was largely forgotten for nearly a century until women academics rediscovered it in the 1900s. In the 2000s, renewed interest arose because her findings predated those of John Tyndall, long credited as the first to experimentally demonstrate the greenhouse effect via infrared radiation. Modern scientists have confirmed that three years before Tyndall's 1859 paper, Foote discovered that water vapor and CO2 absorb heat from sunlight. Her idea that varying levels of these gases could change the climate came five years before Tyndall's 1861 publication. However, due to limitations in her experimental setup and likely a lack of knowledge about infrared radiation, she did not detect the absorption and emission of thermal infrared energy that drives the greenhouse effect.
- Born
- July 17, 1819, Goshen, Connecticut
- Died
- September 30, 1888
- Field
- Physics, climate science
- Nationality
- American
- Known for
- First to identify the greenhouse effect of CO₂ and water vapor; first American woman to publish a physics paper
Lore & Background
Eunice Newton was born in Connecticut and raised in New York, where she was exposed to abolitionist, temperance, and women's rights movements. She attended the Troy Female Seminary and the Rensselaer School from age 17 to 19, gaining a broad education in scientific theory and practice. In 1841 she married attorney Elisha Foote and settled in Seneca Falls, New York. She was a signatory to the Declaration of Sentiments and one of the editors of the proceedings of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.
In 1856 Foote published a paper demonstrating the absorption of heat by carbon dioxide and water vapor, hypothesizing that changing amounts of CO₂ in the atmosphere would alter the climate. Her work was read at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conferences, though she was not a member. She published a second paper in 1857 on static electricity in atmospheric gases. Foote also patented several inventions. Her contributions were rediscovered in the twentieth century by women academics, and in the twenty-first century it was realized that her work predated John Tyndall's experiments on the greenhouse effect.
Reader's Guide
Eunice Newton Foote's significance lies in her pioneering identification of the greenhouse effect three years before John Tyndall's 1859 publication. Her 1856 paper demonstrated that water vapor and CO₂ absorb heat from sunlight and that variances in their atmospheric levels would result in climate change, predating Tyndall's 1861 publication by five years. However, due to limits in her experimental design and possible lack of knowledge of infrared radiation, she did not detect the absorption and emission of radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, which is the cause of the greenhouse effect. Her work was largely forgotten for almost a hundred years until rediscovered by women academics. In 2022, the American Geophysical Union instituted The Eunice Newton Foote Medal for Earth-Life Science in her honor. Her legacy also includes her role as a women's rights campaigner and signatory to the Declaration of Sentiments.
Did You Know?
- Foote's 1856 paper was the first known publication in a scientific journal by an American woman in the field of physics.
- Her work on the greenhouse effect predated John Tyndall's 1859 publication by three years.
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