Papin’s digester
A sealed iron pot with a safety valve that cooked bones soft – the ancestor of the pressure cooker.
Papin showed his ‘digester’ to the Royal Society in 1679 and cooked a dinner for the fellows with it. The safety valve became important for the steam engine. A replica is in the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.
Materials: Cast iron, brass
Manufacture: A lid was screwed on; a safety valve with a weight on an arm released steam if the pressure rose too high.
The safety valve with its lever and weight.
The heavy screwed-down lid.