Talk:Thomas Newcomen/Material from Wikipedia user Dr. Gabriel Gojon/Royal Antiscience

Royal Antiscience When he arrived in England, Papin presented a copy of his treatise to the Royal Society along with the following proposal, recorded in the Royal Society Register, Feb. 11, 1708: "Proposition by Dr. Papin, concerning a new invented boat to be rowed by oars, moved with heat: " It is certain that [it] is a thing of a great consequence to be able to apply the force of fire to save the labour of man; so that the Parliament of England granted, some years ago, a patent to Esquire Savery, for an Engine he had invented for that purpose; and His Highness Charles, Landgrave of Hesse, has also caused several costly experiments to be made for the same design. But the thing may be done several ways, and the machine tryed at Cassel differs from the other in several particulars, which may afford a great difference in the quantity of the effect. It will be good, therefore, to find out clearly what can be done best in that matter, that those which will work about it may surely know the best way they are to choose. I am fully persuaded that Esquire Savery is so well minded for the public good, that he will desire as much as any body that this may be done.

" I do therefore offer, with all dutyfull respect, to make here an Engine, after the same manner that has been practised at Cassel, and to fit it so that it may be applied for the moving of ships. This Engine may be tryed for an hour and more, together with some other made after the Saveryan method. The quantity of the effect should be computed both by the quantity of water driven out of each machine, and by the height the said water could ascend to ....

" I wish I were in a condition to make the said Cassellian Engine at my own charges; but the state of my affairs does not [allow] me to undertake it, unless the Royal Society be pleased to bear the expense of the Vessel called Retort in the description printed at Cassel; but after that I will lay out what is necessary for the rest, and I will be content to lose that expense, in case the contrivance of the Landgrave Of Cassel doth not as much again as that of Esquire Savery; but in case the effect be such as I promise it, I do humbly beg that my expense, time and pains, may be paid, and I reckon this to amount to 15 pounds sterling. If the Royal Society be pleased to honor me with their commands upon such conditions, the first thing to be done is to let me see the place where the Machine must be set, and I will work for it with all possible diligence and I hope the effect will yet be much great er than I have said [emphasis in original]."

By 1708, the Royal Society had all but abandoned even the pretense of scientific inquiry, and so its attitude toward Papin's proposal (as well as others) for real technological advance was predictably negative. In Papin's case, the repeated mention of the name Leibniz in his treatise was sufficient to trigger Royal Society killer instincts. The Transactions of the Newcomen Society, Volume 17 (1936-37), contain a succinct account of the fate of Papin's proposition:

"Papin, then at Cassel, submitted with his paper, a request for fifteen guineas to carry out experiments, but the Royal Society, like our own, did not hand out fifteen guineas at a time. Instead, the matter was referred to Savery in 1708, and in his letter of criticism turning down Papin's design there is a passage in which he damned the cylinder and piston, saying it was impossible to make the latter work because the friction would be too great! [emphasis added] [fn5] " Papin then argued for his proposal before Newton himself, who rejected it on the pretext that it would COST TOO MUCH. Papin was then stranded in England without any means of support, completely at the mercy of Newton, Sloane, and Savery, whose exclusive patent covering all conceivable "fire engines" was still in effect. Papin's 1707 "Proposition" was thus the last heard of any practical plan for a steamship or for early application of steam power, besides pumping mines, until the intervention of Benjamin Franklin's networks in England later in the century. No record remains of Papin's subsequent activity in England besides a mere seven letters to Sloane, mostly repeated requests for money to carry out a variety of experiments. In his last letter to Sloane, Jan. 23, 1712, Papin complained that a number of his inventions presented before the Royal Society had deliberately not been registered under his name:

"So there are at least six of my papers that have been read in the meetings of the Royal Society and are not mentioned in the Register. Certainly, Sir, I am in a sad case, since; even by doing good, I draw enemies upon me. Yet for all that I fear nothing because I rely upon God Almighty."