Steam digester (pressure cooker)
Digestor de vapor (olla a presión) con válvula de seguridad
- Date
- 1679 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England
- Credited to
- Denis Papin
- People
- 👤 Denis Papin1647–1713
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A sealed vessel in which pressurised steam raised the boiling point and softened bones and meat, fitted with the first safety valve. In it, Papin observed the power of steam and of the vacuum created by condensation.
Papin presented the digester to the Royal Society, whose members dined using it in 1682.
What it led to
- The safety valve, a key component of steam boilers
- Papin's steam cylinder with piston (1690), the concept of the atmospheric engine
- Pressure cooking and pressure canning
Built on
Made possible
- Papin's piston-and-cylinder steam engine proposal1690
- Savery steam pump1698
- Newcomen atmospheric engine1712
- Heat sterilization (swan-neck flask and autoclave)1861-1879
- Sterilisation autoclave
- Canned preserves (Appert, 1810)