“ Again in 1702 he wrote about a steam “ballista,” which he anticipated would “promptly compel France to make an enduring peace.” In 1705 Leibnitz sent Papin a sketch of Thomas Savery’s engine for raising water, and this stimulated him to further exertions, which resulted two years afterwards in the publication of the Ars nova ad aquam ignis adminiculo efficacissime elevandam (Cassel, 1707) , in which his high-pressure boiler and its applications are described (see Steam Engine) . ”

“ PAPIN, DENIS (1647–c. 1712) , French physicist, one of the inventors of the steam-engine, was a native of Blois, where he was born on the 22nd of August 1647. In 1661 or 1662 he entered upon the study of medicine at the university of Angers, where he graduated in 1669. Some time prior to 1674 he removed to Paris and assisted Christiaan Huygens in his experiments with the air-pump, the results of which (Expériences du Vuide) were published at Paris in that year, and also in the form of five papers by Huygens and Papin jointly, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1675. ”

“ This device consisted of a vessel provided with a tightly fitting lid, so that under pressure its contents could be raised to a high temperature; a safety valve was used, for the first time, to guard against an excessive rise in the pressure. ”