Britain Sabotaged the Steam Engine of Leibniz and Papin

The early history of the invention of the steam engine shows without doubt that the British Royal Society, including Isaac Newton personally, deliberately prevented the industrial and naval applications of steam power for nearly 1 00 years. In fact, the Royal Society was so intent on burying Denis Papin's 1690 invention of a paddle-wheel-driven steamship, worked out in collaboration with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, that it stole his work, and created a mythical story of how two British "Newtonian" heroes invented the steam engine for the sole purpose of raising water from coal mines -a myth that has persisted in the history books until today. The project of discovering and perfecting a new source of power capable of effecting a dramatic human advance, was first initiated as a national effort by Jean-Baptiste Colbert ( 1619-83), the minister of the young French King Louis XIV. In 1666, Colbert established the Academy of Sciences at Paris for this purpose, recruiting the Dutch scientist Chris­ tiaan Huygens ( 1629-95) as its first president. Huygens' s pro­ gram included "research into the power of gunpowder of which a small portion is enclosed in a very thick iron or copper case. Research also into the power of water converted by fire into steam," as well as experiments with vacuum pumps, wind-powered engines, and the communication of force by the collision of bodies. In 1672, Huygens acquired two young students and col­ laborators: German diplomat Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz