Caus

Caus, CAULX, or CAULS, SALOMON DE, engineer, born at Dieppe in 1576, was a Protestant, and lived much in England and Germany. He was in the service of the Prince of Wales in 1612, and of the Elector Palatine, at Heidelberg, in 1614–20; but by 1623 he returned to France, and became engineer and architect to the king. He died in Paris, 6th June 1626. At Frankfort in 1615 appeared his Raisons des Forces Mouvantes, &c., a work in which is described an apparatus for forcing up water by a steam fountain, differing only in one detail from that of Della Porta (see STEAM-ENGINE). There is no reason to suppose that the apparatus ever was constructed; but on the strength of the description, Arago has claimed for De Caus the invention of the steam-engine. See the article DE CAUS in vol. xiv. of the Dict. of National Biography (1888).