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Denis Papin | |
|---|---|
 Denis Papin, unknown artist, 1689 | |
| Born | (1647-08-22)22 August 1647 Chitenay, nowLoir-et-Cher, France |
| Died | 26 August 1713(1713-08-26) (aged 66) London,Great Britain |
| Education | University of Angers |
| Known for | Steam digester |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Marburg,Royal Society |
Denis PapinFRS (French pronunciation:[dənipapɛ̃]; 22 August 1647 – 26 August 1713)[1][2] was a French Huguenotphysicist, mathematician and inventor, best known for his pioneering invention of thesteam digester, the forerunner of thepressure cooker, thesteam engine,[3][4] thecentrifugal pump, and asubmersible boat.
He started his career in his native France, before emigrating to London, in 1675, and rising to being on the staff of theRoyal Society, in 1684. As a Huguenot, he was stripped of his French citizenship, and denied a return to France afterLouis XIV of France invoked theEdict of Fontainebleau in 1685. From 1687-1707 he held a position as a mathematics professor of theUniversity of Marburg, Germany, before returning to England the last 5 years of his life. In spite of his many discoveries he died a pauper, and the date of his death and burial site were lost for 303 years.
Denis Papin was born into a Calvinist family inChitenay (Loir-et-Cher,Centre-Val de Loire Région), but attended aJesuit school there. In 1661, he attended theUniversity of Angers, from which he graduated with a medical degree in 1669.
In 1673 in Paris, Papin worked withChristiaan Huygens and learnt to knowGottfried Leibniz, who was about the same age as him. Papin became interested in using avacuum to generate motive power.
Due to increasing repression on the Huguenots in France, he first visited London in 1675, where he worked withRobert Boyle from 1676 to 1679, publishing an account of his work inContinuation of New Experiments (1680).[5] During this period, Papin invented thesteam digester, a type ofpressure cooker with asafety valve. He first addressed the Royal Society in 1679 on the subject of his digester, and remained mostly in London.
In 1681, Papin rose to become head of the experimental department at the accademia publica di scienze in Venice and in 1684 became a member of the staff of the Royal Society, whose chairman wasRobert Boyle. During this time he also worked on steam cannons in Venice. Papin was denied return to France afterLouis XIV of France invoked theEdict of Fontainebleau ending religious freedom for Protestants in 1685.
In about 1687, he left France to take up an academic post inMarburg Germany, one of the few calvinist territories in germany at the time, joining fellow Huguenot exiles from France.In 1689, Papin suggested that aforce pump or bellows could maintain the pressure and fresh air inside adiving bell. (EngineerJohn Smeaton utilised this design in 1789.[6][7])
In 1690, having observed the mechanical power of atmospheric pressure on his 'digester', Papin built a model of a pistonsteam engine, the first of its kind. In 1705 while teaching mathematics at theUniversity of Marburg,[8][page needed] he developed a second steam engine with the help ofGottfried Leibniz, based[citation needed] on an invention byThomas Savery, but this usedsteam pressure rather than atmospheric pressure. Details of the engine were published in 1707.
In 1705, Papin constructed a ship powered by hand-cranked paddles to return to London with his wife and children. Anapocryphal story originating in 1851 byLouis Figuire held that this ship was steam-powered (paddlesteamer) rather than hand-powered and that it was therefore the first steam-powered vehicle of any kind.[9][10] The myth was refuted as early as 1880 byErnst Gerland [de], though still it finds credulous expression in some contemporary scholarly work.[11]thepaddlesteamer (1707).
Papin's ship was said to have been destroyed in 1707 by the boatmen ofMunden who feared it would threaten their livelihood.[12] The scene of boatmen destroying Papin's ship is depicted in several pieces of art in the eighteenth century and serves as an example of the resistance and fear inspired by thecreative destruction that accompanies new technology.[13][14]
Later,[when?] at the iron foundry in Veckerhagen (nowReinhardshagen), he cast the world's first steam cylinder.
In 1707, Papin returned to London leaving his wife in Germany. Several of his papers were put before the Royal Society between 1707 and 1712 without acknowledging or paying him, about which he complained bitterly. Papin's ideas included a description of his 1690 atmospheric steam engine, similar to that built and put into use byThomas Newcomen in 1712, thought to be the year of Papin's death.
Papin married at the age of 44 in 1691 in Marburg.[citation needed]
The last surviving evidence of Papin's whereabouts came in a letter he wrote dated 23 January 1712. At the time he was destitute ("I am in a sad case") [Royal Society Archives, 1894, Vol. 7, 74]. Until 2016, it was believed that he died that year and was buried in an unmarked grave in London.
In 2016, a record for the burial of a “Denys Papin” was discovered in an 18th-century Register of Marriages & Burials, It originally came fromSt Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London, but is stored in theLondon Metropolitan Archives. The record states that Denys Papin was buried at St Bride's on 26 August 1713 – just a few days after his 66th birthday – and that he was buried in the Lower Ground, one of the two burial areas belonging to the church at the time.[1]
Since the 2016 discovery of the place and date of Papin's burial in 1713, a memorial plaque has been erected in the West Entrance of St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London, to commemorate his life and his achievements.
Boulevard Denis Papin inCarcassonne is named after him as well as a street inSaint-Michel, Montreal. There is also a statue of Papin with his invention inBlois, at the top of the Escalier Denis Papin, a stairway.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite web}}:|first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}:|last= has generic name (help)Porezag, Karsten (August 2020). "Denis Papin (1647-1713) in Marburg und Kassel - Erfinder des Prinzips der atmosphärischen Kolbendampfmaschine und des Dampfschiff-Antriebes" [Denis Papin (1647-1713) in Marburg and Kassel - inventor of the principle of the atmospheric piston steam engine and the steamship propulsion].Hessische Heimat, Zeitschrift für Kunst, Kultur und Denkmalpflege [Hessian homeland] (in German) (1/2 ed.). Gesellschaft für Kultur- und Denkmalpflege.ISSN 0178-3173.
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