Salomon de Caus

De Caus: Galathea water feature for the Hortus Palatinus

Salomon de Caus (also Mondecaus, de Caulx, de Caux, de Cauls; * 1576 probably in Dieppe , † June 6, 1626 in Paris ) was a French physicist and engineer . He is (wrongly) considered one of the inventors of the steam engine .

Life

Caus was born into a Protestant family and therefore had to leave his homeland in 1612. He lived in England , where he had already received his education.

Between 1614 and 1620 he was a builder for Elector Friedrich von der Pfalz in Heidelberg . Here he built part of the Heidelberg Castle and created the surrounding parks (" Hortus Palatinus "). Furthermore, some gardens come from England, e.g. B. in Greenwich Park (today destroyed by the construction of the Maritime Museum), Wilton House , Hatfield House and Somerset House (the latter also destroyed by a building erected by William Chambers on this site), as well as some work in Richmond Park by him.

Caus later returned to France. He was one of the greatest physicists of his time and is considered one of the co-inventors because of the early use of steam power and its description in the work Les Raisons des forces mouvantes avec diverses machines (German of violent movements, description of a number of both useful and cunning machines 1615 ) the steam engine .

However, his writings remained lost for a long time and only Arago drew attention again to de Caus' achievements. A music machine built according to his plans can be heard in the Michaelstein Monastery .

Salomon de Caus died in Paris on June 6, 1626.

Works

La perspective avec la raison des ombres et miroirs . London 1612
Institution harmonique . Frankfurt am Main 1615
The Raisons des forces mouvantes avec various machines . Frankfurt am Main 1615
From violent movements. Description of some useful and funny machiners . Frankfurt a. M., Abraham Pacquart, 1615 [reprint Hannover, Vincentz, 1977].
Hortus palatinus . Frankfurt am Main 1620 Online edition of the Heidelberg University Library
La pratique et la demonstration des horloges solaires . Paris 1624

literature

sorted by year of publication

Piet Lombaerde: Pietro Sardi , Georg Müller, Salomon de Caus and the water arts of the Coudenberg Gardens in Brussels . In: Die Gartenkunst 3 (2/1991), pp. 159–174.
Christa Weber Miloradovic: The English Legacy. The garden architect Salomon de Caus (1576–1626) and his time. A historical-literary report , Zurich: Chronos, 1990, ISBN 3-905278-66-9
Salomon de Caus, [Ed .: Michaelstein Monastery Foundation]: Art of Mechanics: the fantastic inventions of Salomon de Caus (reprint of the edition published in Frankfurt under the title Of violent movements in 1615), Halle an der Saale: Stekovics, 2003, ISBN 3-89923-033-7
Foundation Schloß und Park Benrath in cooperation with the seminar for art history of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf [ed.]: Miracles and Science. Salomon de Caus and the automaton art in gardens around 1600 , Düsseldorf: Grupello, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89978-100-7
Hepp, Leiner, Mach, Popplow [eds.]: Magical machines, Salomon de Caus' inventions for the Heidelberg Castle Gardens (exhibition catalog) , Pollichia eV 2008, ISBN 978-3-925754-53-1

Web links

Commons : Salomon de Caus - Collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Caus, Salomon de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mondecaus; de Caulx; de Caux; de Cauls
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French physicist and engineer
DATE OF BIRTH	1576
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dieppe , France
DATE OF DEATH	June 6, 1626
Place of death	Paris