Enlightenment · Europe · Technology

1690

Denis Papin Builds a Piston Engine

1690

The French physicist Denis Papin, working in Germany, built a small atmospheric engine in which steam condensed beneath a piston and pulled it down. It was the first true piston engine, decades before Newcomen's commercial version. Papin had sketched the principle of steam power; others would make it move the world.

More from 1690 Enlightenment

In context

Also in 1690 (3 other events on record)

Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding · Europe · Science
Battle of the Boyne · Europe · War
Job Charnock Founds Calcutta · South Asia · Politics

Before and after in Europe

Before: 1689: Locke Publishes Two Treatises of Government
After: August 19, 1691: Battle of Szalankemen

Before and after in Technology

Before: 1681: Canal du Midi Opens
After: 1698: Savery Patents Steam Pump

Era

Enlightenment (1651–1800), one of 696 events from that era on Saeculum.