Salomon de Caus

Salomon de Caus (1576–1626), a French engineer and architect, was probably born in Dieppe, in the Pays de Caux. A representative of the Renaissance encyclopaedic ideal, he trained in painting, ancient languages, engineering, architecture and mathematics, with a marked preference for mechanics and machines. Travelling through several European countries, he worked successively for wealthy patrons as an architect, engineer, drawing master and designer of ornamental gardens, where he created hydraulic machines, fountains featuring allegorical statues and various automata. He mastered mechanics, hydraulics, perspective and music, and built organs and sundials. In 1612, he published La Perspective avec la raison des ombres et miroirs. In 1615, his Raisons des forces mouvantes avec diverses machines tant utiles que plaisantes set out a theory concerning the expansion and condensation of water vapour, making him a pioneer in the practical use of steam power. That same year, his Institution harmonique presented an overview of Renaissance musical theories based on harmonic proportions. In 1624, while in the service of Louis XIII, he published the Pratique et la démonstration des horloges solaires, a work devoted to the proportions and construction of sundials. He also devised a system for cleaning streets using water pumps. At the end of his life, he was working on an unfinished translation of Vitruvius. In the 19th century, an apocryphal legend, born of a false letter written by Samuel-Henry Berthoud to illustrate an engraving, portrayed him as a persecuted inventor, confined at Bicêtre for claiming the invention of the steam engine. This mystification, which Berthoud himself found difficult to debunk, took lasting hold in the popular imagination. He nevertheless remains recognised as one of the first to have put steam power to practical use in a hydraulic machine.