The inauguration is due to the initiative of Mr. Lanssedat, for it was he
who in 1885 suggested the national subscription, which was quickly raised.
Denis Papin was born at Blois on the 22d of August, 1647. He was the son of
a physician. After the example of his father and of several of his
relatives, he studied medicine and took his degree; but his taste for
mathematics, and especially for experimental physics, soon led him to
abandon medicine.
It was in 1690 that he published in the _Actes_ of Leipsic the memoir which
will forever and irrevocably assign to him the priority in the invention of
steam engines and steamboats, and the title of which was: "New method of
cheaply obtaining the greatest motive powers."
In 1704, Papin, poor and obliged to do everything for himself, finished his
first steamboat; but for want of money he was unable to make a trial of it
until August 15, 1707. The trial was made upon the Fulda and Wera,
affluents of the Weser.
The operation succeeded wonderfully, and, shortly afterward, Papin, being
desirous of rendering the experiment complete, put his boat on the Weser;
but the stupid boatmen of this river drew his craft ashore and broke it and
its engine in pieces.
This catastrophe ruined Papin, and annihilated all his hopes. The great
man, falling into shocking destitution, broken down and conquered by
adversity, returned to England in 1712 to seek aid and an asylum.
Everywhere repulsed, he returned to Cassel about 1714, sad and discouraged;
and the man to whom we owe that prodigy, the steam engine, that instrument
of universal welfare and riches, disappeared without leaving any trace of
his death.--_Le Monde Illustre._
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