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Denis Papin

Type Figure Region France Time 1647–1713 Also known as Papin

Denis Papin (1647–c. 1713) was a French Huguenot physicist and inventor. In London he invented a steam digester with a safety valve, later proposed a…

Timeline

  1. 1647–1675Paris · Île-de-FranceAfter studying medicine in Angers, he went to Paris and assisted Huygens with vacuum and air pump experiments; related results also appeared in the Philosophical Transactions.
  2. 1675–1687London · LondonHe went to London because of the Huguenot situation and assisted Boyle in improving the air pump; in 1679, arranged by Hooke, he demonstrated a steam digester with a safety valve to the Royal Society, and in 1680 was elected a Fellow on Boyle's nomination.
  3. 1687–1707Marburg · HesseAppointed professor of mathematics at the University of Marburg, in 1690 he published in the Acta Eruditorum the principle of a single-cylinder atmospheric piston steam engine; he later moved to Cassel to design pumping machinery for a count, received in 1705 a diagram of Savery's pump forwarded by Leibniz, and in 1707 published a scheme for raising water with high-pressure steam.
  4. 1707–1713London · LondonHe returned to London with schemes including a steamboat and petitioned the Royal Society, but received no sustained funding; his later years were impoverished, and he died in England around 1712/1713.

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