zio RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS, 



and down movement of the piston on the body of the 

 pump could be applied to other uses. I may perhaps 

 be permitted to quote in this connection a few extracts 

 from a speech which I made at Elois on behalf of the 

 Academic des Sciences, at the inauguration of Papin's 

 statue on the 29th of August, 1880. 



I said: "The great inventions destined to change 

 the face of humanity rarely enter the domain of accom- 

 plished facts until they have passed through what may 

 be regarded as a providential network of experiments? 

 which may be isolated, but which are summed up and 

 applied by the close researches of a man who is at once 

 perspicacious and disinterested, who knows no guide 

 but science, and who has no object but that of being 

 useful to humanity, disregarded of the atmosphere of 

 errors and prejudices amid which his discoveries are 

 conceived and put in action. 



" Denis Papin was one of these exceptional men. 

 The following is the summary of his labours and dis- 

 coveries : 



" 1674-1709. Perfecting and modifying the pneu- 

 matic engine. 



"1681. Apparatus known in the present day as 

 Papin's digester, autoclave, etc. The guidance of 

 steam. Safety valve. 



"1685. Discovery of the principle of air-pressure 

 syphons. 



" 1687. Discovery of atmospheric locomotion. 



"1695. Fumivorous apparatus, or apparatus for the 



