Denis Papin

French physicist and inventor

• Born: August 22, 1647
• Birthplace: Near Blois, France
• Died: c. 1712
• Place of death: Probably London, England

Papin, a pioneer in realizing the potential of steam for the production of power in a piston engine and steam’s ability to move objects, also invented an early type of pressure cooker. His work was later improved upon by others, leading to the development of the steam engine in the mid-eighteenth century.

Early Life

Denis Papin (duh-nee paw-pan) was born in a farmhouse a few miles from Blois, France, into a Huguenot (French Protestant) family. In 1661 or 1662, he enrolled at the University of Angers to study medicine, a profession already practiced by several members of his family. He was graduated with a medical degree in 1669.

Papin also possessed a strong interest in mechanics and natural philosophy, however, and by 1671 he was in Paris, working for Christiaan Huygens, the well-known Dutch mathematician and astronomer. Huygens had helped Papin get an appointment as the curator of experiments in the laboratory of the French Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris. The academy had been established in 1666 by King Louis XIV , and Huygens had been a founding member; thus, he wielded considerable influence. Once installed, Papin began a series of experiments under Huygens’s guidance. Included in this extensive series of examinations were experiments on producing a vacuum, on determining the weight of air, and on the force of gunpowder. From his experiments with the vacuum, Papin constructed his own air pump, a feat indicative of his mechanical bent.

In 1674, Papin published a memoir of his work on the vacuum called Nouvelles expériences du vuide, avec les descriptions mechanics qui servent à les faire (new experiments in the vacuum, with mechanical descriptions to facilitate them). He also wrote, with Huygens, a series of five papers about his experiments, which Huygens communicated to the Royal Society of London. In 1675, the papers were published in the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions. In that same year, Papin left Paris in the hope of finding a better position, but possibly to escape religious persecution as well. With the help of a letter of introduction from Huygens, he obtained employment with Irish chemistRobert Boyle in London.

Life’s Work

In London, Papin found steady work and a place in which to continue his studies, especially in pneumatics and hydraulics. Thus settled, he embarked on the most productive period of his life. Boyle quickly capitalized on Papin’s experience by initiating his own series of experiments on pneumatics. A key factor in this research was a double-barreled air pump of Papin’s design. The pistons in each barrel were connected to stirrups, into which a person stepped to move the pistons. These experiments under Boyle continued from July, 1676, to February, 1679.

In May, 1679, Papin demonstrated to the Royal Society of London a new use of steam: his so-called digester, or what would now be called the pressure cooker. Indicative of his concern for practical ends, the digester occupied Papin’s mind sporadically for many years. The Royal Society published Papin’s book on the digester in December, 1680. In 1682, he even cooked a dinner with his digester for the Royal Society; it was well received, according to contemporary accounts.

Following his work with Boyle, Papin worked for the Royal Society, performing secretarial duties until the society terminated the position in December, 1679. During 1680, he may have returned to Paris to assist Huygens with work on a gunpowder engine, in which a flash of gunpowder pushed most of the air out of a cylinder beneath a piston, thereby allowing the weight of the atmosphere to push the piston down. In late 1680, he became a fellow of the prestigious Royal Society.

In 1681, Papin traveled to Venice at the request of Ambrose Sarotti, whom Papin had met when Sarotti had been in London as the Venetian senate’s representative to the English court. Sarotti, a fellow of the Royal Society since 1679, was establishing his own scientific academy in Venice, and he hired Papin as curator of experiments. Papin stayed until 1684, when he once again returned to London, this time as a temporary curator of experiments for the Royal Society. As such, he was required to prepare experiments for each meeting of the society.

Papin was very good at preparing and conducting experiments and demonstrations, and his own work began to reflect the expertise he thus gained. He also continued to publish papers in the society’s Philosophical Transactions, but he left many others unpublished.

During this stint with the Royal Society, Papin began working on various methods of raising water. By now he had almost fifteen years of experience with pneumatics and hydraulics, and he began applying that knowledge to practical ends. His first scheme, which he presented to the Royal Society in June, 1685, was little more than a toy, in which he used the force of air to raise water. By June, 1686, he published a method for lifting water, which could have been used to drain water from mines or to supply a municipal water system with river water. This second proposal still offered a pneumatic means of lifting water, the power coming from a vertical waterwheel placed in a river.

The next iteration of his pneumatic engine for lifting water used the power of the waterwheel to create a vacuum under large pistons. The weight of the atmosphere then pushed the pistons down, thus doing work. This was the first attempt to use the weight of the atmosphere to provide a continuous effect (in this case the transmission of power). It does not appear that any such machine was ever built.

A few months later, in October, 1687, Papin turned to the use of gunpowder to evacuate a chamber below a piston of air. He was following Huygens’s earlier idea, but he claimed to have made important improvements. In this proposal, the explosion of a small charge of gunpowder inside a cylinder (beneath a moving piston) forced much of the air in the cylinder out through one-way valves. The cylinder being thus evacuated, the weight of the atmosphere drove the piston down, doing work in the process. Although this plan had its merits, the gunpowder left a residue inside the cylinder, and Papin’s tests showed that the explosion evacuated only about 80 percent of the air.

Shortly after presenting these ideas to the Royal Society in late 1687, Papin moved once again, this time to Germany, where he took the mathematics chair at the University of Marburg. His work suffered little interruption as a result of the move, and in August, 1690, he published a brief memoir of perhaps his most important technological innovation: production of a vacuum under a piston by condensation of steam. Papin built and demonstrated a small model engine working on this principle. He placed a fraction of an inch of water at the bottom of the cylinder, then pushed the piston down the cylinder until it touched the water. He then placed a flame under the cylinder. As the water boiled, the pressure of the steam forced the piston up the cylinder; the steam condensed as the cylinder cooled, leaving a vacuum beneath the piston. As in his earlier engines, the weight of the atmosphere then pushed the piston down, performing work as it went. This scheme solved the major problems of the gunpowder engine, but Papin does not seem to have built a full-size engine of this type.

Papin moved in 1695 or 1696 from Marburg to Cassel, where his patron, Landgrave Charles of Hesse, employed him as an engineer. Among his many tasks was the job of draining the landgrave’s mines. In 1705, still in the landgrave’s employ, he received a drawing of Thomas Savery’s engine for draining mines. This engine also used a vacuum created by the condensation of steam, but not in conjunction with a piston. Papin attempted to improve upon Savery’s engine, but by all accounts the engine he built was inferior to Savery’s.

By late 1707, Papin was again in London, but not without mishap. Precipitating his departure from Cassel was the explosion—resulting in fatalities—of an experimental cannon, which was to have used steam rather than gunpowder to propel a projectile. He departed with his family on a small experimental boat propelled by a steam engine, although the exact type of engine remains unclear. Fearing competition from this new mode of transportation, rivermen on the Fulda River pulled the boat ashore and wrecked it. Papin’s luck did not change when he reached London. Most of his friends from the Royal Society, especially the influential ones, were dead, and Savery held the patent rights for the steam engine. As a result, he lost his most important means of livelihood. Papin’s last years are shrouded in obscurity. He apparently lived for a few years on small payments from the Royal Society for services rendered, but the exact time and place of his death are unknown.

Significance

Papin was a thinker first and foremost. Although he had a very practical bent, he was not inclined to pursue one line of thought from the original conception to the construction of a working machine. Perhaps he was not capable of following a project from start to finish. Trained as a medical doctor, he had neither business expertise nor an engineering education. Papin also suffered from the lack of a strong supporter and financial backer. Without being able to market and profit from his inventions and without strong financial backing, he had little chance of completing projects that required substantial capital (such as a full-size steam engine).

Finally, it is important to remember that Papin never established a solid reputation. By moving frequently, especially as a younger man, and by failing to publish all but a few of the many papers he wrote, Papin failed to make himself and his ideas widely known.

Clearly, Papin was the first to think of producing a vacuum under a piston by the condensation of steam and letting the weight of the atmosphere perform work. This was the idea behind the early steam engine. It is not so clear what Papin actually contributed to the first engine; it may well be that Thomas Newcomen, whose famous steam engine worked on the same principle, arrived at the idea independently.

Bibliography

Barr, Scott E. “Denis Papin.” American Journal of Physics 32 (1964): 290-291. A concise overview of Papin’s life and accomplishments. Correctly maintains that Papin devised many original ideas, but because he lacked thoroughness he left many papers unpublished and many inventions unnoticed.

Bernard, Paul P. “How Not to Invent the Steamship.” East European Quarterly 14 (Spring, 1980): 1-8. Focuses on the claim that Papin invented a steamship, briefly examining the work and obstacles involved in his trip down the Fulda River. Also examines how Papin’s reputation has suffered, largely as a result of nationalistic debates between German and French historians.

Dickinson, H. W. A Short History of the Steam Engine. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1938. Reprint. New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1965. Dickinson focuses on Papin’s contributions to development of the modern steam engine, briefly mentioning his work on the digester, the force of gunpowder, and other inventions. An introduction by A. E. Musson places Dickinson’s work in its proper historiographical setting and supplies a few illuminating comments on Papin.

Drucker, Peter. “From Analysis to Perception: The New Worldview.” In The Essential Drucker: The Best Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management. New York: HarperBusiness, 2001. Management expert Drucker argues that Papin’s invention of the steam engine created a new technology and perception of the world.

Galloway, Robert L. The Steam Engine and Its Inventors: A Historical Sketch. London: Macmillan, 1881. This work still is perhaps the best English-language account of Papin’s work in pneumatics and hydraulics. Galloway briefly treats Papin’s early life in chapter 1, while chapters 3 and 4 deal exclusively with Papin and his inventions.

Robinson, H. W. “Denis Papin (1647-1712).” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 5 (1947): 47-50. Based on the records of the Royal Society, this brief narrative is especially good, as one would expect, on Papin’s relationship with the society. Provides a good overview of Papin’s inventive life.