德尼·帕潘Denis Papin

德尼·帕潘的父亲也叫帕潘，因此我们将称他为老帕潘。老帕潘（生于1608年10月21日，卒于1688年）是Jacques Papin和Jehanne Dufour十个孩子中的长子。他成为布卢瓦地区的皇家顾问和税收征收员。老帕潘大约在1640年与Madeleine Pineau结婚，她的家族有行医的传统。他们有十三个孩子，本传记的主人公帕潘是他们的第四个孩子和长子。他的出生日期未知，我们给出的日期，1647年8月22日，实际上是他的洗礼日期。他的叔叔Isaac Papin为他主持了洗礼，当时26岁。这个家庭是胡格诺派教徒，即新教徒的法国分支，并受到1598年通过的南特敕令的保护，免遭迫害。

他六岁时，帕潘被交由他的叔叔Nicolas Papin（生于1625年1月22日）照料。Nicolas Papin是布卢瓦以西约100公里处的索米尔的一名医生，1647年在那里结婚，并有三个孩子分别生于1648年、1649年和1653年。索米尔有一所胡格诺派科学院，帕潘在这所学校学习。1661年，他开始在昂热大学学习医学，该大学设有法律、神学、艺术和医学院，吸引了来自全法国的学生。他于1669年6月4日获得医学学位，但[13]：-

……他对教学和同学的评价都不高，但认为获得医学博士学位是值得的。

在他职业生涯的这个阶段，帕潘打算从事医学，因此在回到布卢瓦几个月后，他于1670年前往巴黎开始医生生涯。然而，他对数学和力学的兴趣远大于医学，很快他就对医学感到厌倦。他寻找参与数学的途径，并接触了财政总监让-巴蒂斯特·柯尔贝尔的妻子玛丽·沙隆·柯尔贝尔。沙隆家族和帕潘家族都来自布卢瓦，因此玛丽·柯尔贝尔是帕潘寻求支持的明显人选。从1666年12月起，柯尔贝尔一直在组织一小群学者在国王图书馆聚会。克里斯蒂安·惠更斯，当时领先的科学家之一，被说服在巴黎工作，是柯尔贝尔小组的主要成员。他正在寻找一名助手，因此安排帕潘担任这一角色。从1671年到1674年，他协助克里斯蒂安·惠更斯进行空气泵实验，在此期间他住在巴黎皇家图书馆克里斯蒂安·惠更斯的公寓里[8]：-

在克里斯蒂安·惠更斯的指导下，帕潘出版了一本书《真空的新实验》（巴黎，1674年），基于他在学徒期间听说的实验。这包括克里斯蒂安·惠更斯的空气泵设计以及他自1668年以来用该仪器进行的许多实验，包括测试动物和植物在泵内的反应，以及观察看似真空的接收器中的气压计。事实上，帕潘书中的一部分密切遵循克里斯蒂安·惠更斯于1668年向Académie Royale所作的讲座。帕潘对克里斯蒂安·惠更斯参与的辩论不屑一顾，宁愿改进仪器并叙述在空气泵稀薄空间内发生的自然现象的观察。同样在1674年，罗伯特·波义耳不知道帕潘的书，出版了一本短论文集，其中包括关于“空气的隐藏性质”的作品……克里斯蒂安·惠更斯于1675年6月收到罗伯特·波义耳的论文集，并在下个月，帕潘带着自己的空气泵前往英国，直接与罗伯特·波义耳交流。

克里斯蒂安·惠更斯给帕潘写了一封介绍信给皇家学会的秘书亨利·奥尔登堡。在信中，他请奥尔登堡安排帕潘被介绍给罗伯特·波义耳和威廉·布朗克。他还问奥尔登堡是否能找到某种方式让帕潘在英国立足。奥尔登堡为帕潘安排了住宿，组织他临时担任家教，并把他介绍给罗伯特·波义耳。帕潘加入了针线街的胡格诺派教会，但在这个阶段，他似乎想专注于学习英语而不是讨论科学。虽然伦敦皇家学会当时在运作，但会议不频繁，罗伯特·波义耳没有参加。然而，到1675年秋天，帕潘开始试图让罗伯特·波义耳对他的工作感兴趣。他通过与克里斯蒂安·惠更斯合写多篇论文并在皇家学会的Transactions上发表来做到这一点。在1676年2月的一次皇家学会会议上，奥尔登堡报告了罗伯特·波义耳的实验和帕潘的实验，一些实验在学会会议上进行了演示。帕潘发明了一种特别有效的双筒空气泵。罗伯特·波义耳向帕潘提供了一个助手职位，他欣然接受。两人开始进行实验，但在罗伯特·波义耳生病后，帕潘独自继续工作[17]：-

根据罗伯特·波义耳自己的证词，这就是帕潘所做的：他设计并建造了这些实验中使用的特定仪器；他操作仪器，或独自或与其他技术人员一起；他测量并记录了几乎所有的实验现象；他计划和组织了大部分要进行的实验。此外，他撰写了至少相当一部分，可能几乎全部的实验报告。

Anita McConnell 写道 [13]：-

从1676年7月到1679年2月，帕潘与罗伯特·波义耳密切合作，进行与呼吸、磁性、空气以及血液和各种药物的化学有关的实验，他在其《新实验续编》（1680年）中描述了这些实验。

他留在这个职位直到1679年，当时他成为皇家学会的罗伯特·胡克的助手。1679年，帕潘发明了压力锅，并向皇家学会 [15]展示了它：-

该装置例证了蒸汽在加热和密闭时所获得的巨大弹性力。这种蒸煮器用于烹饪和通过高压蒸汽从骨头中提取明胶的特性，包含了目前用这种方法制备食物时所实践的一切。

他于1681年出版了一部用英文描述其蒸煮器的著作，即A new digester or engine for softening bones, containing a description of its make and use。法文版于1682年在巴黎出版。由于他与罗伯特·胡克和罗伯特·波义耳的出色工作，帕潘于1680年当选为皇家学会的会士。他为罗伯特·胡克所做的工作似乎主要是作为低薪秘书，并且在1681年3月1日，帕潘返回法国与克里斯蒂安·惠更斯一起工作。

尽管现在已成为领先的物理学家，帕潘并未完全放弃对医学的兴趣，因为1681年他写了A Treatise on Painless Operations [7]：-

作者在其中描述了可用于减轻病人感觉、免除手术疼痛的不同方法。

1681年，帕潘前往意大利，在威尼斯Accademia publicca di scienze担任实验主任，直到1684年。Giovanni Ambrosio Sarotti曾试图将威尼斯的Accademia改造成一个仿照伦敦皇家学会和巴黎Académie Royale的学会。Sarotti在1679年当选为皇家学会会士时，曾在英格兰见过帕潘。事实上，当Sarotti回到威尼斯时，他带走了帕潘的一台空气泵。Sarotti建立了一座宏伟的图书馆，每周开放三天供学者使用。其中一天是星期一，晚上学者们会聚在一起讨论。这些聚会上演示实验，并讨论数学。然而，缺乏资金支持使Sarotti创建威尼斯版皇家学会的尝试告终。离开意大利后，由于宗教原因，帕潘无法返回法国。他是加尔文主义者，出生于胡格诺派家庭，而在1685年路易十四撤销了给予胡格诺派宗教自由的南特敕令后，他成为流亡者。

帕潘于1684年返回伦敦，再次与皇家学会合作直到1687年。他被任命为临时实验管理员，在这些年里撰写了多篇论文，并在皇家学会会议上进行了许多实验演示。他的一些论文发表在皇家学会的Philosophical Transactions上，但大多数未发表，保存在档案中。1687年，帕潘离开英格兰，前往奥托·黑塞-卡塞尔，在那里被任命为马尔堡大学数学教授[13]：-

1687年，随着帕潘被任命为德国马尔堡大学数学教授，更美好生活的前景出现了。在那里，他与逃离法国的其他胡格诺派教徒重聚，其中包括他的表妹Marie Papin和她的丈夫Jacques Maliverne，后者也是该大学的教授，不久后去世，留下遗孀抚养他们的小女儿Charlotte。帕潘想娶Marie的愿望遭到当地牧师的反对，理由是近亲关系，直到1691年1月1日才通过黑塞伯爵的特别特许得以实现。

他担任此职位直到1696年，之后为黑塞-卡塞尔伯爵工作直到1707年。对帕潘来说，在黑塞-卡塞尔的这段时间并不成功，他发现自己与同事意见不合。他返回伦敦，住在威斯敏斯特，将妻子和继女留在德国。

我们应当提到帕潘与哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨的友谊，以及两人之间的科学争论。他们在1670年代相识并成为朋友，当时帕潘正与克里斯蒂安·惠更斯合作。此时，哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨经常造访克里斯蒂安·惠更斯的实验室，因此定期见到帕潘。他们的科学争论体现在1689-1691年的书信往来中，始于哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨的一封信，该信涉及帕潘一篇讨论自由落体运动的论文。哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨在信末说：-

我们由此得出结论，反对笛卡尔学派：运动的量不应总是守恒。

帕潘的反应是既回信又撰写更多论文。争论围绕的是vis viva，即我们今天所称的动能，但通信还涵盖了许多其他主题。1692年他们又交换了更多信件。Alberto Guillermo Ranea写道[14]：-

从1692年1月到11月，他们交换了大约十篇文本，其中哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨和帕潘都试图给出各自论点的主要观点。我们可以推测这些文本原本打算发表。但由于哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨坚决反对帕潘将争论提交给科学界的意图，它们一直未编辑……1692年11月，他们的通信突然停止，大概是因为帕潘在新职位上遇到了麻烦，那是在马尔堡。尽管如此，后来从1695年7月直到1700年帕潘前往荷兰，他们又围绕vis motrix进行了激烈的争论。……帕潘在整个争论中反复重申其立场的依据：如果我们处理的是通过先前从同一高度下降获得的运动而被提升到某一高度的物体，我们不能假设这些高度与vires motrices成正比，因为这些力会被它们必须克服的阻力所减弱，而不是被它们所经过的距离所减弱。

帕潘最为人所知的是他作为发明家的工作，特别是他在蒸汽机方面的工作。我们已经提到他发明了压力锅，1690年他在De novis quibusdam machinisⓉ（《论某些新机器》）中发表了他关于蒸汽机的第一部著作。蒸汽机的目的是将水提升到卡塞尔和Karlshaven之间的运河。他还使用蒸汽机将水抽到宫殿屋顶上的水箱，为庭院中的喷泉供水。1705年，当哥特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨寄给帕潘一张蒸汽机草图时，帕潘再次开始研究这个主题，并撰写了The New Art of Pumping Water by using Steam （1707年）。他设计了一个安全阀，以防止蒸汽压力积聚到危险水平。

帕潘还研究过其他发明，包括建造潜艇、气枪和榴弹发射器。他试图在黑塞-卡塞尔建立玻璃工业，还试验用化学方法和真空来保存食物。1707年，帕潘建造了第一艘明轮船，同年他回到伦敦，在那里默默无闻、穷困潦倒地生活直至去世。显然，他1707年回到伦敦时希望受雇于皇家学会，他写了许多信表示愿意向该学会展示实验。当时，艾萨克·牛顿是皇家学会的主席，似乎没有对帕潘的重新受雇给予任何鼓励。此外，该学会本身也面临财政困难，无法向帕潘提供多少经济援助。帕潘继续撰写论文，例如1711年他向皇家学会寄了十一篇论文。这些论文在学会会议上被宣读，但尽管包含有趣的想法，却未发表。他提出的一个重要想法是黑森风箱，这是一种旨在产生气流以熔化矿石的机器。这一想法成为高炉的基础。他的去世日期只是猜测，因为似乎没有关于他在伦敦最后几年的记录。他已知的最后一封信日期为1712年1月23日。学会已于1712年1月4日投票决定向他支付10英镑作为服务报酬，但他在1月23日写那封信时尚未收到这笔款项。很可能，由于发现他去世的人不知道他有任何亲属或钱财，他们将他埋葬在一个无名坟墓中。

至于帕潘的性格，Alberto Guillermo Ranea写道，他是[14]：-

……一个极其固执的性格，一个无法向对手让出丝毫优势的人，一个在争论艺术的规则和技巧方面技艺娴熟的专家。

帕潘一生中获得的荣誉很少，主要是因为他的工作的重要性直到他去世100年后才被理解，尽管如此，他最近在他的家乡布卢瓦获得了荣誉，那里竖立了一座铜像，一条主要街道以他的名字命名。圣艾蒂安的让·莫内大学一栋建筑位于帕潘街。职业高中帕潘位于拉库尔讷沃，离布卢瓦不远。巴黎有一条帕潘街，埃希罗勒和波尔多附近的贝格勒也有一条帕潘街。2013年7月，在法国卢瓦-谢尔省的希特奈举行了帕潘诞辰300周年庆祝活动。

Denis Papin's father was also named Denis Papin so we will refer to him as Denis Papin Sr. Denis Papin Sr (born 21 October 1608, died 1688) was the eldest of the ten children of Jacques Papin and Jehanne Dufour. He became a royal counsellor and revenue collector for the district of Blois. Denis Papin Sr married Madeleine Pineau, whose family had a tradition of being medical practitioners, around 1640. They had thirteen children with Denis, the subject of this biography, being their fourth child and eldest son. His date of birth is unknown and the date we have given, 22 August 1647, is actually the date of his baptism. He was presented for baptism by his uncle, Isaac Papin who was 26 years old at the time. The family were Huguenots, a French branch of Protestants, and were protected from persecution by the Edict of Nantes which was passed in 1598.

When he was six years old, Denis was put into the care of his uncle Nicolas Papin (born 22 January 1625). Nicolas Papin was a medical doctor in Saumur, about 100 km west of Blois, and had married there in 1647 and had three children born in 1648, 1649 and 1653. In Saumur there was a Huguenot Academy and Denis studied at this school. In 1661, he began his studies of medicine at the University of Angers which had colleges of Law, Theology, Arts and Medicine,and attracted students from the whole of France. He graduated with a medical degree on 4 June 1669 but [13]:-

... he came away with a low opinion both of the teaching and of his fellow students but considered it worthwhile to obtain the degree of M.D.

At this stage in his career, Papin intended to follow medicine so, after some months back in Blois, he went to Paris in 1670 to begin life as a medical doctor. However, he was much more interested in mathematics and mechanics than he was in medicine and soon he was bored with medicine. He looked for ways to become involved in mathematics and approached Marie Charron Colbert, the wife of the Controller-General of Finances, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. The Charron and the Papin families were both from Blois so Marie Colbert was an obvious person for Papin to approach looking for support. Now, from December 1666, Colbert had been organising a small group of scholars to meet in the King's library. Christiaan Huygens, one of the leading scientists of his day, had been persuaded to work in Paris and was a leading member of Colbert's group. He was looking for an assistant so it was arranged for Papin to fill this role. He assisted Huygens with air pump experiments from 1671 to 1674, during which time he lived in Huygens's apartments in the Royal Library in Paris [8]:-

Under Huygens's supervision, Papin published a book, 'Nouvelles Expériences du Vuide' (Paris, 1674), based on the experiments he had heard about during his apprenticeship. This included Huygens's design of the air-pump as well as many of his experiments with the instrument that he had performed since 1668, including testing the reaction of animals and plants inside the pump and observing the barometer in the apparently vacuous receiver. Indeed, a section of Papin's book closely follows a lecture that Huygens delivered to the Académie Royale in 1668. Dismissive of the debates in which Huygens had been involved, Papin preferred instead to improve the instrument and to narrate observations of natural phenomena occurring inside the rarefied space of the air-pump. Also in 1674, Boyle, unaware of Papin's book, published a collection of short papers that included works about the 'hidden qualities of the air" ... Huygens received Boyle's collection of papers in June 1675, and in the following month Papin travelled to England with his own air-pump to engage directly with Boyle.

Huygens gave Papin a letter of introduction to Henry Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society. In the letter he asked Oldenburg to arrange for Papin to be introduced to Boyle and Brouncker. He also asked Oldenburg if he could find some way of letting Papin establish himself in England. Oldenburg arranged accommodation for Papin, organised for him to undertake temporary work as a tutor, and introduced him to Boyle. Papin joined the congregation of Huguenots in Threadneedle Street but, at this stage, he seemed to want to concentrate on learning English rather than on discussing science. Although the Royal Society of London was operating at this time, meetings were infrequent and Boyle did not attend them. By the autumn of 1675, however, Papin began to try to interest Boyle in his work. He did this by writing a number of papers with Huygens which he published in the Transactions of the Royal Society. At a meeting of the Royal Society in February 1676, Oldenburg reported on both Boyle's experiments and those of Papin and some of the experiments were demonstrated at the Society meeting. Papin had invented a double-barrelled air pump which was particularly effective. Boyle offered Papin a position as his assistant and this was gladly accepted. The two began to carry out experiments but, after Boyle became ill, Papin carried on the work on his own [17]:-

According to Boyle's own testimony, this is what Papin did: he designed and constructed the particular instrument used in these experiments; he operated the instrument, either by himself or with the assistance of other technicians; he measured and recorded almost all of the experimental phenomena; and he planned and organized a great part of the experiments to be per formed. Moreover, he composed at least a significant part, and possibly almost all, of the experimental reports.

Anita McConnell writes [13]:-

From July 1676 to February 1679 [Papin] worked closely with Boyle on experiments connected with respiration, magnetism, air, and the chemistry of blood and various medicaments, which he described in his 'Continuation of New Experiments' (1680).

He remained in this post until 1679 when he became Robert Hooke's assistant at the Royal Society. In 1679 Papin invented the pressure cooker which he demonstrated to the Royal Society [15]:-

The device exemplified the enormous elastic force that steam acquires when heated and confined. The properties of this digester for cooking and extracting gelatine from bones by high pressure steam contains all that is at present practised in the preparation of food by this method.

He published a work in English describing his digester in 1681, namely A new digester or engine for softening bones, containing a description of its make and use. A French edition was published in Paris in 1682. Papin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1680 as a consequence of his excellent work with Hooke and Boyle. His work for Hooke seems to have been mainly as a low paid secretary and, on 1 March 1681, Papin returned to France to work with Huygens.

Although now established as a leading physicist, Papin did not entirely give up his interest in medicine for in 1681 he wrote A Treatise on Painless Operations [7]:-

In it the author describes the different means which may be used to lull the sensibility of patients and to spare them the pain of operations.

In 1681 Papin left for Italy where he was director of experiments at the Accademia publicca di scienze in Venice until 1684. There had been an attempt by Giovanni Ambrosio Sarotti to turn the Accademia in Venice into a Society modelled on the Royal Society in London and the Académie Royale in Paris. Sarotti had met Papin in England at the time when Sarotti had been elected to the Royal Society in 1679. In fact when Sarotti had returned to Venice, he took with him one of Papin's air pumps. Sarotti had created a magnificent library which he opened for scholars to use on three days each week. One of these days was a Monday and in the evening the scholars would meet for discussions. Experiments were demonstrated at these meetings and mathematics was discussed. However, lack of financial support ended Sarotti's attempt to create a Venetian version of the Royal Society. After leaving Italy, there were religious reasons why Papin could not return to France. He was a Calvinist, born into a Huguenot family, and after the Edict of Nantes which had granted religious liberty to the Huguenots was revoked by Louis XIV in 1685, he became an exile.

Papin returned to London in 1684 working again with the Royal Society until 1687. He was appointed as temporary curator of experiments and over these years wrote many papers and gave many demonstrations of experiments at Royal Society meetings. Some of his papers were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society but most were preserved unpublished in the archives. In 1687 Papin left England and went to Hesse-Kassel where he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Marburg [13]:-

Prospects of a better life opened up in 1687 with Papin's appointment as professor of mathematics at the University of Marburg, in Germany. There he was reunited with other Huguenots who had fled France, among them his cousin Marie Papin and her husband, Jacques Maliverne, likewise a professor at the university, who shortly died, leaving his widow to support their small daughter, Charlotte. Papin's desire to marry Marie was opposed by the local pastor on the grounds of consanguinity and only achieved, on 1 January 1691, by special dispensation from the landgrave of Hesse.

He held this post until 1696 when he worked for the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel until 1707. This time in Hesse-Kassel was not a successful one for Papin who found himself in disagreement with his colleagues. He returned to London, living in Westminster, having left his wife and step-daughter in Germany.

We should mention Papin's friendship with Gottfried Leibniz and also the scientific controversy between the two. They met and became friends in the 1670s when Papin was working with Huygens. At this time Leibniz was a frequent visitor to Huygens' laboratory and so met Papin on a regular basis. Their scientific controversy occurs in an exchange of letters in 1689-1691, beginning with a letter from Leibniz concerning a paper by Papin which discusses the motion of freely falling bodies. Leibniz ends his letter saying:-

We conclude against the Cartesians that quantity of motion should not always be conserved.

The way Papin reacted was both to reply with a letter but also to write further papers. The controversy was over vis viva, what today we call kinetic energy, but the correspondence covered many other topics as well. Further letters were exchanged in 1692. Alberto Guillermo Ranea writes [14]:-

From January to November, 1692, they exchange about ten texts in which both Leibniz and Papin try to give the main points of their arguments. We may conjecture that these texts were intended to be published. But as Leibniz was firmly opposed to Papin's intention of submitting the controversy to the scientific community, they remained unedited ... In November, 1692, their correspondence suddenly stopped, presumably because of Papin's troubles with his new appointment in Marbourg. Nevertheless, they later intensively argue over vis motrix from July, 1695 until Papin's travel to Holland in 1700. ... Papin repeats the grounds of his position throughout the controversy: if we are dealing with bodies which are raised to a certain height by a motion acquired through a previous descent from the same height, we cannot assume that these heights are proportional to the vires motrices, since the forces are diminished by the resistance they must overcome, and not by the distance they traverse.

Papin is best known for his work as an inventor, particularly his work on the steam engine. We have already mentioned his invention of the pressure cooker and, in 1690 he published his first work on the steam engine in De novis quibusdam machinis Ⓣ. The purpose of the steam engine was to raise water to a canal between Kassel and Karlshaven. He also used a steam engine to pump water to a tank on the roof of the palace to supply water for the fountains in the grounds. In 1705, when Leibniz sent Papin a sketch of a steam engine, Papin began working on that topic again and wrote The New Art of Pumping Water by using Steam (1707). He designed a safety valve to prevent the pressure of steam building up to dangerous levels.

Other inventions which Papin worked on were the construction of a submarine, an air gun and a grenade launcher. He tried to build up a glass industry in Hesse-Kassel and also experimented with preserving food both with chemicals and using a vacuum. In 1707 Papin built the first paddle boat and that same year he returned to London where he lived in obscurity and poverty until his death. Clearly he hoped to be employed by the Royal Society when he returned to London in 1707 and he wrote many letters offering to present experiments to the Society. Isaac Newton was, at this time, President of the Royal Society and seems to have given no encouragement for Papin's reemployment. In addition, the Society was itself in financial difficulties and was not in a position to give Papin much in the way of financial assistance. Papin continued to write papers, for example he sent eleven papers to the Royal Society in 1711. These were read to the Society at their meetings but not published despite containing interesting ideas. One important idea he produced was his Hessian Bellows, a machine designed to produce blasts of air for melting ores. This idea became the basis of the blast furnace. The date given for his death is only a guess since no records seem to exist of his last years in London. His last known letter is dated 23 January 1712. The Society had voted to send him £10 for his services on 4 January 1712 but he had not received this payment at the time he wrote the letter on 23 January. It is likely that, with no relatives or money known to those who found him after he died, they would have him buried in an unmarked grave.

As to Papin's character, Alberto Guillermo Ranea writes that he was [14]:-

... a formidably obstinate character, a man incapable of conceding the least advantage to his adversary, a skilled expert in the rules and tricks of the art of disputing.

Although Papin received little in the way of honours in his lifetime, mainly because the importance of his work was not understood until 100 years after his death, nevertheless he has been honoured more recently in his native town of Blois where a bronze statue has been erected and one of the main streets is named after him. A Jean Monnet University building in St Étienne stands in the Rue Denis Papin. The Lycée Professionnel Denis Papin is in La Courneuve, not far from Blois. There is a Rue Papin in Paris as well as a Rue Denis Papin in Échirolles and in Bègles, near Bordeaux. In July 2013 there were 300 year celebrations of Papin's life at Chitenay in the Loir et Cher Department of France.