Salomon de Caus (1576,

Dieppe Dieppe (; ; or Old Norse ) is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department, Normandy, northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newhaven in England ...

– 1626, Paris) was a French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

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

, once (falsely) credited with the development of the

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), 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 (locomotive), cyl ...

Biography

Caus was the elder brother of Isaac de Caus. 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 crown. ...

. Caus also designed gardens in England, that of

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

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

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. 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. She was List of Scottish royal consorts, Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and List of English royal consorts, Queen of Engl ...

or her son, Prince Henry 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 epic ...

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

Hatfield House Hatfield House is a Grade I listed English country house, country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean architecture, Jacobean hous ...

. He is described in the exchequer records beginning in 1611 or 1612 (the date is uncertain) as "Gardener to the Queen". He designed a fountain for the east garden of

, and a receipt of May 1612 describes him as the Prince's engineer. 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 (; , ''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 scenic views of the c ...

and featured shells and a cavern inhabited by the nine

Muses In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

. On top was a figure of

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

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, s ...

in black marble. At Greenwich, Caus may have designed a grotto which served as an aviary. He revamped the gardens at

Richmond Palace Richmond Palace was a Tudor royal residence on the River Thames in England which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Situated in what was then rural Surrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminste ...

for Prince Henry, and worked at Heidelberg for Elizabeth of Bohemia. King James gave him a gift of £50 in 1614. Salomon de Caus carried letters from Viscount Lisle, 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 (), known simply as François Arago (; Catalan: , ; 26 February 17862 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the Carbonari revolutionaries and politician. Early l ...

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 nam ...

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 Hardboiled, ''noir'' detective novels. Biography Born in Shrewsbury, England, Pryce moved at the age of nine to Aberystwyth, where he later attended Penglais Comprehensive Schoo ...

'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