Salomon de Caus

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Salomon de Caus

1576-1626

French engineer and architect, who pioneered the use of the steam engine. In Les Raisons des forces mouvantes (1615), Caus described a steam pump in which water was heated in a vessel and pushed out by the resulting steam. Because he was a Protestant, Caus was exiled from his homeland, and spent much of his career in England and Germany. He used steam to power a number of small devices.