Denis Papin FRS (French pronunciation: [dəni papɛ̃]; 22 August 1647 – 26 August 1713) was a French Huguenot physicist, mathematician, and inventor. He is most famous for creating the steam digester, an early version of the pressure cooker, steam engine, centrifugal pump, and a submersible boat.

He began his career in France before moving to London in 1675. In 1684, he joined the staff of the Royal Society. As a Huguenot, he lost his French citizenship and could not return to France after Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685. From 1687 to 1707, he worked as a mathematics professor at the University of Marburg, Germany. He returned to England in the final five years of his life. Despite his many inventions, he died in poverty. The exact date of his death and location of his burial were unknown for 303 years.

Early life and education

Denis Papin was born in Chitenay, Loir-et-Cher, a region in France. Although his family was Calvinist, he attended a Jesuit school there. In 1661, he went to the University of Angers. He earned a medical degree from the university in 1669.

Career

In 1673 in Paris, Papin worked with Christiaan Huygens and met Gottfried Leibniz, who was about the same age as him. Papin became interested in using a vacuum to create power that could move machines.

Because of growing pressure on the Huguenots in France, Papin first visited London in 1675. From 1676 to 1679, he worked with Robert Boyle and published an account of his work in Continuation of New Experiments (1680). During this time, Papin invented the steam digester, a type of pressure cooker with a safety valve. He first spoke about his digester to the Royal Society in 1679 and mostly stayed in London.

In 1681, Papin became head of the experimental department at the Accademia Publica di Scienze in Venice. In 1684, he joined the staff of the Royal Society, whose chairman was Robert Boyle. During this time, he also worked on steam cannons in Venice. Papin was not allowed to return to France after Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, which ended religious freedom for Protestants.

Around 1687, Papin left France to take a job in Marburg, Germany, one of the few Calvinist regions in Germany at the time. He joined other Huguenot exiles from France. In 1689, Papin suggested that a force pump or bellows could keep pressure and fresh air inside a diving bell. (Engineer John Smeaton used this design in 1789.)

In 1690, after observing the power of atmospheric pressure on his "digester," Papin built a model of a piston steam engine, the first of its kind. In 1705, while teaching mathematics at the University of Marburg, he developed a second steam engine with the help of Gottfried Leibniz, based on an invention by Thomas Savery. This engine used steam pressure instead of atmospheric pressure. Details of the engine were published in 1707.

In 1705, Papin built a ship powered by hand-cranked paddles to return to London with his wife and children. A story from 1851 claimed the ship was steam-powered, but this was proven false as early as 1880 by Ernst Gerland. The story is still sometimes mentioned in some modern writings. The paddlesteamer (1707) is a term used for this type of ship.

Papin’s ship was said to have been destroyed in 1707 by boatmen in Munden who feared it would harm their jobs. This event is shown in several 18th-century artworks and represents the fear and resistance people sometimes feel toward new inventions.

Later, at the iron foundry in Veckerhagen (now Reinhardshagen), Papin cast the world’s first steam cylinder.

In 1707, Papin returned to London, leaving his wife in Germany. Between 1707 and 1712, several of his papers were presented to the Royal Society without giving him credit or payment. He complained about this strongly. Papin’s ideas included a description of his 1690 atmospheric steam engine, similar to one built and used by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. Papin is thought to have died in 1712.

Personal life and death

Papin married when he was 44 years old in 1691 in Marburg.

The last known information about where Papin lived came from a letter he wrote on January 23, 1712. In the letter, he said he was in a poor situation ("I am in a sad case") [Royal Society Archives, 1894, Vol. 7, 74]. Until 2016, people believed he died in 1712 and was buried in an unmarked grave in London.

In 2016, a record of the burial of a man named “Denys Papin” was found in an 18th-century list of marriages and burials. The record originally belonged to St Bride's Church on Fleet Street, London, but is now kept in the London Metropolitan Archives. The record shows that Denys Papin was buried at St Bride's Church on August 26, 1713—just a few days after his 66th birthday—and that he was buried in the Lower Ground, one of two burial areas in the church at that time.

After the 2016 discovery of the location and date of Papin’s burial in 1713, a memorial plaque was placed in the West Entrance of St Bride's Church on Fleet Street, London, to honor his life and achievements.

Legacy

Boulevard Denis Papin in Carcassonne is named in his honor, as is a street in Saint-Michel, Montreal. A statue showing Denis Papin and his invention is located in Blois, at the top of the Escalier Denis Papin, a stairway.

Works

A new method for lifting water using the power of fire… by Mr. D. Papin. Published in Cassel by Jacob Estienne, a court bookseller, and printed by Jean Gaspard Voguel. 1707. {{ cite book }} : CS1 maint: publisher location ( link )