:Denis Papin

Born in Chitenay (Loir-et-Cher, Centre-Val de Loire Région), Papin attended a Jesuit school there. In 1661, he attended the University of Angers, from which he graduated with a medical degree in 1669.

In 1673, Papin worked with Christiaan Huygens and Gottfried Leibniz in Paris, and became interested in using a vacuum to generate motive power.

In 1675, he first visited London, where he worked with Robert Boyle from 1676 to 1679, publishing an account of his work in Continuation of New Experiments (1680).Anita McConnell, 'Papin, Denis (1647–1712?)', [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21249 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography], Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 29 April 2006] During this period, Papin invented the steam digester, a type of pressure cooker with a safety valve. He first addressed the Royal Society in 1679 on the subject of his digester, and remained mostly in London. As a Huguenot, Papin found himself greatly affected by the increasing restrictions placed on Protestants by Louis XIV of France and by the King's ultimate revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

In Germany, he was able to live with fellow Huguenot exiles from France, so in about 1687, he left to take up an academic post in Germany.

In 1689, Papin suggested that a force pump or bellows could maintain the pressure and fresh air inside a diving bell. (Engineer John Smeaton utilised this design in 1789.{{cite book |author=Davis, RH |author-link=Robert Davis (inventor) |title=Deep Diving and Submarine Operations |year=1955 |edition=6th |publisher=Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd |location=Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey |page=693 }}{{cite journal |last=Acott |first=C. |title=A brief history of diving and decompression illness. |journal=South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal |volume=29 |issue=2 |year=1999 |issn=0813-1988 |oclc=16986801 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627230124/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6004 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=27 June 2008 |access-date=17 March 2009 }})

While in Marburg in 1690, having observed the mechanical 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,{{cite Q|Q7997840}}. he developed a second steam engine with the help of Gottfried Leibniz, based{{Citation needed|date=August 2020|reason=Papin worked on steam engines since before 1690, so a citation is required.}} on an invention by Thomas Savery, but this used steam pressure rather than atmospheric pressure. Details of the engine were published in 1707.

In 1705, Papin constructed a ship powered by hand-cranked paddles. An apocryphal story originating in 1851 by Louis Figuire held that this ship was steam-powered rather than hand-powered and that it was therefore the first steam-powered vehicle of any kind. The myth was refuted as early as 1880 by {{ill|Ernst Gerland|de|Ernst Gerland (Physiker)}}, though still it finds credulous expression in some contemporary scholarly work.{{cite book |author=Wootton, David|title=The Invention of Science |year=2015|publisher=Harper Collins |location=New York |page=498,647 }}

Papin's ship was said to have been destroyed in 1707 by the boatmen of Munden who feared it would threaten their livelihood.{{Cite journal |last=Valenti |first=Philip |date=December 1979 |title=A Case Study of British Sabotage Leibniz, Papin, and The Steam Engine |url=http://21sci-tech.com/Articles%202008/papin_steam_engine.pdf |journal=Fusion |pages=41 |via=sci-tech}} 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 the creative destruction that accompanies new technology.{{Cite web |last=LIBRARY |first=SCIENCE, INDUSTRY & BUSINESS LIBRARY/NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY/SCIENCE PHOTO |title=Destruction of Papin's steamboat, 1707 - Stock Image - V900/0062 |url=https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/364656/view/destruction-of-papin-s-steamboat-1707 |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=Science Photo Library |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Limited |first=Alamy |title=Destruction of Denis Papin Steamboat,1707 Stock Photo - Alamy |url=https://www.alamy.com/destruction-of-denis-papin-steamboat1707-image151886440.html |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=www.alamy.com |language=en}}

Later,{{when|date=January 2021}} at the iron foundry in Veckerhagen (now Reinhardshagen), 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 by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, thought to be the year of Papin's death.

{{Gallery

|align=center mode="packed"

|Image:Boyle-Papin-Digester.jpg|Robert Boyle and Denis Papin inspecting Papin's digester

|Image:Papin's digester.gif|Denis Papin's steam digester (1679)

|Image:Papinengine.jpg|Papin's first piston steam pump, 1690

|Image:Papinengine2.jpg|Papin's second steam pump, 1706/07

|Image:Papin'sSteamEngine2fromThruston.jpg|Papin's second steam pump driving a water wheel (on the left), 1706/07

|File:Steam driven water lifting machine by Papin 1707 reconstitution.jpg|Steam-driven water-lifting machine by Papin in 1707, reconstruction, from Nouvelle manière d'élever l'eau par la force du feu. Musée des Arts et Métiers

|Image:Denis Papin Todeseintrag 1713.jpg|The Register from St Bride's Church showing the date of Papin's burial

|Image:Papin cooking pot-CnAM 1630-1-IMG 6614-black.jpg|A "Papin" cooking pot, late 18th century

|Image:Papin's Memorial in St Bride's Church.jpg |Papin's Memorial in St Bride's Church

}}

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], and it was believed that he died that year and was buried in an unmarked grave in London.

However, a record exists for the burial of a “Denys Papin” in an 18th-century Register of Marriages & BurialsLondon Metropolitan Archives; Collection: Saint Bride; Title: Register of Marriages Burrials &tc from 1695 to Aug 1714; catalogue reference: P69/BRI/A/005/MS06540/003. (seen June 2016) which originally came from St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London, but which is stored in the London 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. Since the discovery, in 2016, 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 in Carcassonne is named after him as well as a street in Saint-Michel, Montreal. There is also a statue of Papin with his invention in Blois, at the top of the Escalier Denis Papin, a stairway.

File:Denis Papin – Nouvelle manière pour lever l'eau par la force du , 1707 - BEIC 102424.jpg

• {{Cite book|publisher= pour Jacob Estienne libraire de la cour : par Jean Gaspard Voguel imprimeur|title= Nouvelle manière pour lever l'eau par la force du feu ... par m. D. Papin|place=A Cassel|year= 1707|url= https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=102424}}

{{Reflist}}

{{cite book

|last=Porezag

|first=Karsten

|date=Aug 2020

|title=Hessische Heimat, Zeitschrift für Kunst, Kultur und Denkmalpflege

|trans-title=Hessian homeland

|chapter=Denis Papin (1647-1713) in Marburg und Kassel - Erfinder des Prinzips der atmosphärischen Kolbendampfmaschine und des Dampfschiff-Antriebes

|language=de

|trans-chapter=Denis Papin (1647-1713) in Marburg and Kassel - inventor of the principle of the atmospheric piston steam engine and the steamship propulsion

|edition=1/2

|publisher=Gesellschaft für Kultur- und Denkmalpflege

|issn=0178-3173

}}

• {{Wikiquote-inline|Denis Papin}}
• {{commons-inline|Denis Papin}}
• {{MacTutor Biography|id=Papin}}
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• {{Gutenberg author|id=47251|name=Denis Papin}}
• {{OL author|667443A|cname=Denis Papin}}

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Category:1647 births

Category:1710s deaths

Category:17th-century French inventors

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:French Protestants

Category:Huguenots

Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences

Category:People from Loir-et-Cher

Category:Year of death unknown