Eunice Foote (1819-1888) was the first person to understand the phenomenon we now know as the greenhouse effect.
Eunice Foote (1819-1888) was the first person to understand the phenomenon we now know as the greenhouse effect.
You’re probably familiar with rebels without a cause, but what about rebels with a cause? This month on Womanica, we’re talking about women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. From the “Godmother of Title IX” Bernice Sandler, to the most prominent figure of the People Power Revolution, Corazon Aquino, to the “Queen of Civil Rights” Ruby Hurley, these women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
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Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. And this is Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about Rebels WITH a cause: women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. These women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
When this Womanican claimed rising carbon dioxide levels would change atmospheric temperatures, few people paid attention. But today, she’s recognized as the first person to understand the phenomenon we now know as the greenhouse effect. Let’s talk about Eunice Foote.
Eunice was born on July 17, 1819, in Goshen, Connecticut. Her father’s name was Isaac Newton Jr., and was a distant relative of the famous mathematician. Quite the auspicious start for this amateur scientist!
Eunice grew up in Bloomfield, New York. She attended the progressive Troy Female Seminary which educated young women in all subjects– including science.
In 1841, Eunice married Elisha Foote, who had no shortage of job titles. He was a judge, an inventor, a scientist– and a lifelong match for Eunice’s own curious spirit.
Elisha and Eunice lived in Seneca Falls as neighbors to suffragist and abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. When the famed Seneca Falls Convention for women’s rights rolled around in 1848, the Footes were in attendance. Eunice’s was the fifth signature on the Declaration of Sentiments, which demanded legal and social equality for women.
When she wasn’t busy campaigning for the right to vote, Eunice turned her attention to science. She kept up to date with scientific literature and conducted her own amateur experiments around popular topics. In 1856, one specific discussion caught her eye.
Scientific American readers were theorizing why mountaintops were colder than valleys.
Eunice was intrigued. So, she designed an experiment.
Eunice placed two identical thermometers in two identical glass jars. There was just one difference between them: she pumped air out of one jar, and pumped extra air into the other. She put both jars out in the sun and recorded their temperatures every few minutes. The jar with more air recorded greater shifts in temperature. Eunice repeated the experiment, this time with moist and dry air. Again, the air with greater density became much hotter than the dry air.
Eunice knew she was onto a discovery. She expanded her experiment, this time testing the effect of the sun on various gasses. She found that carbon dioxide collected and maintained the highest temperature, even when tested in the shade.
Eunice published her findings in a short paper. In it, she touched on what would become the theory of global warming. She wrote that if at some point the air on Earth mixed with a larger proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it would result in increased temperature.
This paper appears to make Eunice the first person to discover the heat-absorbing properties of gas and connect that phenomenon to climate.
In August of 1856, Eunice’s findings were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Eunice, however, sat in the audience. A family friend and well-known scientist, Joseph Henry, was the one on stage attempting to demonstrate the importance of Eunice’s work.
Though Eunice had conducted her own research, she was still an amateur woman scientist in a highly specialized, male-dominated field. Very little attention was given to her paper. In fact, it wasn’t even mentioned in the conference’s official proceedings. Her only media coverage came in the form of an article in Scientific American, the same publication that inspired her experiment, which lauded the work of several women scientists at the time.
In 1857, Eunice published one more paper, this time on static electricity. She dedicated the rest of her life to women’s suffrage and creating inventions alongside Elisha. She died in 1888.
Today, Eunice’s name is often forgotten. Contemporary scientists do credit a 19th-century scientist with discovering the greenhouse effect but his name was John Tyndall.
A well respected physicist, Tyndall’s contribution was much the same as Eunice’s and came three years after she first published her findings. Today, scientists and academics are working to give Eunice her due credit as a pioneer of climate science.
All month, we’ve been talking about Rebels With A Cause. Tune in tomorrow for the beginning of a new theme!
For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.