PAPILON or PAPYLION, RALPH, called de Arundel (d. 1223), abbot of Westminster, was a native of London (Ralph de Diceto, ii. 172), and became a monk of Westminster. In 1200 he was chosen by the monks as their abbot at Northampton in the presence of the king (ib.) He received benediction in St. Paul's, London, from William de Sancta Maria, bishop of London (Nichols, Leicestershire, ii. 708). In 1201 he was summoned to Normandy by King John (Ralph de Diceto, p. 173). At his instance the feasts of St. Laurence, St. Vincent, and St. Michael, and of the translation of St. Benedict were celebrated in copes with extra wine and pittances, and, to defray the expense, he gave the abbey the manor of Benfleet. In 1213 the house was visited by Nicholas, bishop of Tusculum and legate, and Ralph was deposed on charges of incontinency and neglect of the fabric, and his seal was broken in the chapter-house. He received the manors of Teddington and Sudbury to support himself, and died on 12 Aug. 1223 (Ann. Dunst. i. 170). He was the first abbot buried in the nave of Westminster (Widmore). He must be distinguished from Ralph (d. 1160?) [q. v.], theological writer and almoner of Westminster.
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PAPIN, DENIS (1647–1712?), natural philosopher, son of Denys Papin and Magdaleine Pineau, was born at Blois on 22 Aug. 1647. He studied medicine at the university of Angers, taking his degree in 1669. He devoted himself to natural philosophy and mechanics, and became assistant to Huyghens at the laboratory of the academy at Paris. In 1675 he left Paris and proceeded to London, where he became connected with Robert Boyle [q. v.], who employed him to make a translation of a theological treatise. From 1676 to 1679 he assisted Boyle in his experiments with the air-pump. To this period belongs Papin's invention of the digester, an apparatus for boiling food under pressure. This was shown to the Royal Society at a meeting held on 22 May 1679, and in the following year Papin published an account of it under the title ‘A New Digester, or Engine for softening Bones.’ Under the date 12 April 1682 Evelyn records in his ‘Diary’ how he took part in a ‘philosophical supper’ at the Royal Society, cooked in Papin's digester. A French translation appeared at Paris in 1682, and in 1687 he issued ‘A Continuation of the New Digester of Bones.’ Of all Papin's inventions this was the most practical, and is in use at this day. His portrait at the university of Marburg represents him holding in his hand a copy of his account of the digester, open at the place where the apparatus is figured.
From July to December 1679 Papin was employed at the Royal Society by Hooke as an amanuensis, and during part of 1680 he was again at Paris with Huyghens. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1680, and in 1681 he left England for Venice, where he remained for three years, acting as curator of a scientific society established by Sarotti. He renewed his connection with the Royal Society in 1684, and on 2 April of that year he was appointed curator at a salary of 30l. per annum, his principal duty being to exhibit experiments at the meetings. Brief notes of many of these experiments are given in Birch's ‘History of the Royal Society,’ vol. iv., while others are described at greater length in the ‘Philosophical Transactions.’ In 1688 he became professor of mathematics at the university of Marburg, and in 1695 he removed to Cassel, where he assisted his patron, the landgrave of Hesse, in making experiments upon a great variety of subjects. At the end of 1707 he was again in London, endeavouring to interest the Royal Society in his steam-navigation projects, and to induce them to institute comparative experiments of his steam engine and that of Savery.
Papin's claims to be regarded as ‘the inventor of the steam engine’ have been advocated with considerable warmth by many French writers, but his labours in this direction have little connection with his career in England, and all the evidence adduced is inconclusive (cf. a very careful summary of his claims in Robert L. Galloway's Steam Engine and its Inventors, and an article by the present writer in the Engineer, 19 May 1876). It is often asserted that he actually made a steam engine, which he fitted in a boat in which he intended to cross the sea to England. It is true that he did construct a boat with paddle-wheels, which was destroyed by the boatmen on the Weser at Münden in 1707; but there is no evidence whatever that the boat was propelled by steam power. In 1876 a large cast-iron cylinder preserved at the Royal Museum at Cassel was exhibited at the loan collection of scientific instruments at South Kensington as the cylinder of Papin's steam engine; but it was conclusively shown by Sir Frederick Bramwell in ‘Science Lectures at South Kensington’ (1878, i. 112) that it could not possibly have formed any part of a steam engine.
