Lives of Boulton and Watt. Principally from the Original Soho Mss.: Comprising also a history of the invention and introduction of the steam engineSmiles, Samuel
History
Lives of Boulton and Watt. Principally from the Original Soho Mss.: Comprising also a history of the invention and introduction of the steam engine
[5] De Caus eventually returned to France, and was appointed
engineer to the King. During the later years of his life he
was employed in carrying out plans for the better supply of
Paris with water. The story so often told of De Caus having
been shut up in the Bicêtre turns out to be a fiction. Though
a Huguenot, he was not persecuted by Richelieu, but was, on
the contrary, employed by him; and in 1624 he dedicated to
that prelate his treatise entitled ‘Horologes Solitaires.’ Mr.
Charles Read, editor of several interesting memoirs of early
French Protestants, has recently brought to light and published
in the ‘Gazette des Tribunaux’ the proofs of the patronage of
De Caus by Richelieu, and reproduced the original documents,
which he discovered slumbering in the dust of the State Records
at Paris. In 1621 De Caus is found proposing to Louis XIII. to
adopt measures for cleansing Paris and the faubourgs of dirt and
uncleanness, by a system of reservoirs established at elevated
points, and by fountains at various places which he indicated.
The king and his council sent the propositions to the chief
magistrate of Paris, and Mr. Read transcribes the deliberation
which took place on the subject at the City Council, as handed
down in the records deposited in the Imperial Archives. De Caus
died at Paris, and was buried in the church of La Trinité in
February, 1626.
It is probable that the first contriver of a working steam-engine was
Edward, second Marquis of Worcester, one of the first and most illustrious
of a long line of unfortunate inventors. The career of that nobleman--born
though he was to high rank and great estate--was chequered and sad in no
ordinary degree. Edward Somerset was the eldest son of Henry Lord Herbert,
afterwards Earl of Worcester, and consequently heir to that title. He was
born in London in 1601. His early years were principally spent at Raglan
Castle, his father’s country seat, where his education was carefully
attended to. In the course of his pupilage he made occasional visits to
the continent, accompanied by his tutor, for the purpose of acquiring
that degree of polish and culture considered necessary for a person of
his social position. On the accession of his father to the Earldom of
Worcester, in 1627, Edward became Lord Herbert by courtesy; and in the
following year he married, and went to reside at Raglan Castle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Lives of Boulton and Watt. Principally from the Original Soho Mss.: Comprising also a history of the invention and introduction of the steam engine — John Shaqi
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