In 1859, an Irish physicist named John Tyndall conducted a series of experiments that involved passing heat through gases like carbon dioxide and water vapor to demonstrate how they trapped heat in the Earth’s atmosphere.
His experiments were the foundation of our current understanding of climate change.
Tyndall was credited with the discovery of the greenhouse gas effect for over a century. However, a woman named Eunice Foote actually came to the conclusion that carbon dioxide could warm the atmosphere three years before Tyndall did.
In 2011, a collector of old manuscripts and scientific journals was leafing through a 1857 volume of The Annual of Scientific Discovery when he stumbled across the name Eunice Foote.
Eunice conducted her own experiments in 1856, which were three years before Tyndall. Her work proved the same phenomenon that Tyndall claimed to have discovered. Her experiments were strikingly simple.
She set up 30-inch-long cylinders that each contained a thermometer. Then, she filled the cylinders with various gases, including carbon dioxide, oxygen, hydrogen, moist air, and dry air.
She placed the cylinders in the sun and observed how the gases warmed. She noted that the cylinder with carbon dioxide warmed the most. It stayed at a high temperature long after she removed it from the sun.
She concluded that gases like carbon dioxide and water vapor could trap heat in the atmosphere and raise the Earth’s temperature. She was the first person to demonstrate that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, making a major contribution to science.
Eunice was born as Eunice Newton in 1819 in Goshen, Connecticut. She was raised in a large family. Her father was a cattle runner named Isaac Newton, not the same person as the physicist.
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They moved frequently and ended up in Bloomfield, New York, when Eunice was three years old. Her parents valued education and even sent their daughters to school, which was uncommon at the time.
When she was older, Eunice attended the Troy Female Seminary. It was one of the first institutions in the United States to offer a decent education to young women.
Eunice was taught the typical subjects for women of her time, but she was also exposed to science and lab work.
She married Elisha Foote in 1841. He was an inventor and lawyer who went on to become the U.S. Commissioner of Patents. The couple moved to Seneca Falls, New York, and worked together on scientific studies, including the experiments on carbon dioxide.
Her research on greenhouse gases was published in the American Journal of Science. It is unclear whether Tyndall knew about Eunice’s work when he conducted his own experiments three years later.
While Eunice may be the “mother of climate science,” Tyndall still deserves some credit. He expanded on Eunice’s experiments by using more advanced equipment and determining that infrared radiation is the key factor in the greenhouse effect.
Even though Eunice made many accomplishments in the scientific community, she was still forgotten for decades, showing that women have long faced challenges in being recognized for their work.
Overall, Eunice helped pave the way for future generations of women in science. She died in 1888.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
