DENIS PAPIN: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE - ARTE - 2024

Denis Papin (1647-1712) was a French physicist, mathematician, and inventor, known for creating the steam digester and pioneering the steam cooker. In addition, their contributions are considered essential to inspire the further development of the first cylinder and piston steam engine.

Although he studied medicine, little did his career, as he devoted himself to mathematics and mechanics. During his years of work, he shared ideas and carried out projects in conjunction with great personalities of the time such as Christiaan Huygens, Robert Boyle and Gottfried W. Leibniz.

Portrait of Denis Papin (1689). Unknown author. Source:

Biography

Early years and studies

In August 1647, Denis Papin was born in the city of Blois, capital of the French entity of Loir and Cher. His parents were Sir Denis Papin and Madeleine Peneau, who had 12 other children. His family was of Calvinist or Huguenot doctrine, as that group of French Protestants used to be known.

There is little information about his childhood and youth, but it is known that his uncle Nicolás Papin, a doctor in Saumu, took charge of his care from the age of 6. Following the family tradition, in 1661 he began his medical studies at the University of Angers, where he obtained his degree in 1669.

Although he originally intended to pursue his medical career, he gradually lost interest in his first year of practice, while his preference for mathematics and mechanics increased.

In 1670, he traveled to Paris to dedicate himself to the development of mechanical devices, as an assistant to Christiaan Huygens. Together with this German physicist, astronomer and mathematician, he carried out several experiments, including the construction of an air pump.

In those years he established a close friendship with another Huygens assistant, Gottfried W. Leibniz, who years later was also remembered as one of the great thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In 1674 a joint work by Huygens and Papin, Vacuum Experiments, was published, in which their experiences to preserve food under vacuum are related and some machines to achieve it are described. In 1675 it was disseminated again, but this time under the format of 5 scientific articles and with the name Philosophical Transactions.

Period in London, Venice and Marburg

Shortly after its publications, in 1675 and on the recommendation of Huygens, he traveled to London to work with Robert Boyle, considered the "father of chemistry." Together with him he developed a compressed air weapon and managed to perfect the vacuum pump, by replacing the two shut-off valves with double barrels.

In 1679 he exhibited his famous 'steam digester to soften bones', which would evolve into the now known pressure cooker. In 1680, he invented the condensation pump and was elected to the Royal Society by Boyle's nomination. The Royal Society was one of the oldest and most recognized groups of scientists in the UK and Europe.

In 1682 he moved to Venice, being invited to participate in the work of the Academy of Philosophical and Mathematical Sciences, recently founded by Ambrose Sarotti.

The academy had little success, apart from financial problems, so Papin had to return to London in 1684. There he resumed his work at the Royal Society as "temporary curator of experiments."

In 1687 he presented another of his inventions, but with little satisfaction at the poor results. It was the pneumatic transmission of energy over long distances. In November of that year, he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Marburg, in Germany, where he remained for almost 8 years.

In 1690 he published his first work on the steam engine. It was a piston machine in which the explosive used by Huygens was replaced by water vapor, achieving its condensation and the "perfect vacuum".

Return to London and last years

In 1705 he set out to work with his friend and former partner Gottfried W. Leibniz, with whom he continued to sketch some early designs for the steam engine, inspired by the sketches of Thomas Savery. He then went on to work on prototypes for other inventions such as the submarine, the air pistol, and the grenade launcher.

In 1707 he presented his 'new way of raising water by the power of fire', in which he sought to perfect Savery's work. However, it did not achieve a result with commercial potential.

That year he returned to London, with the intention of returning to work at the Royal Society, as he was going through financial problems, but the society was not in a position to hire more staff. Therefore, he continued writing and publishing articles to improve his prototypes.

In early 1712, without resources and almost without friends, Denis Papin was found lifeless in London, England. It is unknown where his body was buried. One hundred years later, his contributions were recognized and a bronze statue was erected in his honor in his hometown.

Contributions to science

Second model of the submarine. Source: Denis Papin

Papin's main contribution was undoubtedly the steam digester, later known as the pressure cooker, although its development was not suitable for commercial purposes at the time.

It was a closed container with an airtight lid that limited the steam until it generated a high pressure, which considerably raised the boiling point of the water.

Food that was placed inside cooked much faster than ordinary methods, being steamed at a temperature 15% higher than the boiling point of water.

Papin was the first to use a safety valve to control steam pressure and prevent explosions from early devices. He observed that the trapped steam tended to lift the lid, allowing him to conceive of a piston in a cylinder, a basic design for the first steam engines.

The also inventor of the condensation pump spent almost 40 years developing mechanical devices and worked on various prototypes and sketches that would later become very useful.

These include the transmission of pneumatic energy, the air pump, the steam engine, the submarine, the air pistol, the vacuum pump, the grenade launcher and a paddle wheel boat that would later replace the oars in the steam ships.

References

1. Encyclopædia Britannica (2019, February 22). Denis Papin. Recovered from britannica.com
2. "Denis Papin Invents the Pressure Cooker." (2001) Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery. Recovered from Encyclopedia.com
3. Robinson, HW (1997) Denis Papin (1647-1712). Notes Rec. R. Soc. Recovered from royalsocietypublishing.org
4. O'Connor, J and Robertson, E. (2014, March). Denis Papin. MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews. Recovered from history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk
5. NNDB (2019). Denis Papin. Recovered from nndb.com