Salomon de Caus (1576,

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to N ...

– 1626, Paris) was a French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

, once (falsely) credited with the development of the

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ...

Biography

Caus was the elder brother of

Isaac de Caus Isaac de Caus (1590–1648) was a French landscaper and architect. He arrived in England in 1612 to carry on the work that his brother Salomon de Caus had left behind. His first known work in England was a grotto that Caus designed in 1623 locat ...

. Being a Huguenot, Caus spent his life moving across Europe. He worked as a hydraulic engineer and architect under

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crow ...

. Caus also designed gardens in England, that of

Somerset House Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...

among them; also, the Hortus Palatinus, or Garden of the Palatinate, in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. Caus arrived in England late in 1610 or in the first months of 1611. His first royal patron was

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and Eng ...

or her son,

Prince Henry Prince Henry (or Prince Harry) may refer to: People *Henry the Young King (1155–1183), son of Henry II of England, who was crowned king but predeceased his father *Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460) *Henry, Duke of Cornwall (Ja ...

who granted him a pension of £100 in 1610. Anne of Denmark made him a groom of her chamber, with the authors

Samuel Daniel Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) was an English poet, playwright and historian in the late-Elizabethan and early- Jacobean eras. He was an innovator in a wide range of literary genres. His best-known works are the sonnet cycle ''Delia'', the e ...

and

John Florio Giovanni Florio (1552–1625), known as John Florio, was an English linguist, poet, writer, translator, lexicographer, and royal language tutor at the Court of James I. He is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. ...

. In November 1611 Caus was advising the Earl of Salisbury at

Hatfield House Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Cec ...

. He is described in the exchequer records beginning in 1611 or 1612 (the date is uncertain) as "Gardener to the Queen". He worked at Greenwich Palace and Denmark House where he made a fountain with an artificial "rock". An engineer Richard Barnwell made a pump for the fountain. The "rock" represented

Mount Parnassus Mount Parnassus (; el, Παρνασσός, ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is and historically has been especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers ...

and featured shells and a cavern inhabited by the nine

Muses In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

. On top was a figure of

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

and nearby a female personification of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

in black marble. At Greenwich, Caus may have designed a grotto which served as an aviary. He revamped the gardens at Richmond Palace for Prince Henry, and worked at Heidelberg for

Elizabeth of Bohemia Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 159613 February 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. Since her husband's reign in Bohemia lasted for just one winter, she is called the Wi ...

. King James gave him a gift of £50 in 1614. Salomon de Caus carried letters from

Viscount Lisle The title of Viscount Lisle has been created six times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, on 30 October 1451, was for John Talbot, 1st Baron Lisle. Upon the death of his son Thomas at the Battle of Nibley Green in 1470, the viscoun ...

, the Chamberlain of the Queen's Household, to his wife at Penshurst Place. His name in letters and other court records was often spelled "Solomon Cole". In 1615, he published ''Les Raisons des forces mouvantes'' which showed a steam-driven pump similar to one developed by Giovanni Battista della Porta fourteen years earlier. Nevertheless,

François Arago Dominique François Jean Arago ( ca, Domènec Francesc Joan Aragó), known simply as François Arago (; Catalan: ''Francesc Aragó'', ; 26 February 17862 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of t ...

called him the inventor of the steam engine as a result. Caus also describes a just-intonation scale, now known as the Ellis Duodene, after

Alexander John Ellis Alexander John Ellis, (14 June 1814 – 28 October 1890), was an English mathematician, philologist and early phonetician who also influenced the field of musicology. He changed his name from his father's name, Sharpe, to his mother's maiden n ...

who reinvented it. Caus was one of the first to employ the term ''work'' in the sense that it is used in the modern field of mechanics.

Works

''Hortus Palatinus''
(1620) at the University of Heidelberg * ''La Perspective avec la raison des ombres et miroirs'' (1611) * ''Les Raisons des forces mouvantes'' (1615)

In popular culture

Malcolm Pryce Malcolm Pryce (born 1960) is a British author, mostly known for his ''noir'' detective novels. Biography Born in Shrewsbury, England, Pryce moved at the age of nine to Aberystwyth, where he later attended Penglais Comprehensive School before l ...

's 2015 novel "The Case of the 'Hail Mary' CelesteThe Case of the 'Hail Mary' Celeste, 2015, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4088-5193-7 refers to de Caus as the originator of the idea of using steam to power wheeled transport. * Salomon de Caus is also described in Hans Andersen's story "The Thorny Path" as the discoverer of the power of steam.

References

External links

* 1576 births 1626 deaths People from Dieppe, Seine-Maritime 17th-century French architects French engineers French landscape architects French music theorists Huguenots Material culture of royal courts {{France-engineer-stub