Nicéphore Niépce was his younger brother, now much better known from his connection with Daguerre and photography. But the two brothers worked together on a hydraulic engine with fewer moving parts than others, the world’s first internal combustion engine, as well as pioneering photographic processes. Claude’s death in 1828 — he had gone to England to try to expoit their internal combustion engine — has probably contributed to his marginalisation. Carnot in his official position examined the Niépce’s hydraulic engine and was impressed by it, but told them the emperor had decided upon someone else’s plan.