Joseph Fourier, Claude Pouillet and the Greenhouse Effect

The deductions of early 19th Century French physicists Fourier and Pouillet on how the atmosphere is better at absorbing heat released from the Earth than of incoming solar radiation was an important precursor to the understanding that gases such as carbon dioxide can have an important effect on global temperatures, as was made clear later in the 19th Century by Arrhenius.

Picture Credits:
Ecole Polytechnique (painting showing the returning of a crucifix after the 1848 revolution): Hippolyte Lecomte, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Paris (painting of The Pont de la Concorde and Tuileries Palace from the Cours la Reine): François Louis Thomas Francia, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Auxerre: Charles Heath, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Robespierre: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Grenoble: AnonymousGuyFawkes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Fourier: Julien-Léopold Boilly, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Pouillet: Smithsonian Institution from United States, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Paris: François Louis Thomas Francia, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ecole Polytechnique: Hippolyte Lecomte, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons