History of Pressure Cooker

History of Pressure Cooker
The pressure cooker was invented in 1679 by Denis Papin (1647-1712), a physicist. Papin was born in France and studied medicine.

He worked with Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), the Dutch scientist who developed the pendulum clock, working in Paris after Huygens was appointed to the Paris Academy, one of the earliest scientific societies.

In 1675 Papin moved to London, where he worked as secretary to Robert Hooke, who had just been appointed to head the British Royal Society.

Papin worked with both Huygens and Robert Boyle on the development of an air pump, and while working in London with Boyle, Papin developed the pressure cooker or “steam digester.”

Widely adopted in the 20th century, the cooker worked by closing the pot with a tightly fitted lid with a weighted safety release valve similar to that designed by Papin.

With the higher pressure the boiling point of water rose considerably, allowing meats to be cooked much more quickly than by boiling at ambient pressure.
History of Pressure Cooker