Papin üstök, fénykép.

Photo of Papin cauldrons, large steam digester, the forerunner of pressure cookers, 1960.

Denis Papin (Blois, 22 August 1647 – London, 26 August 1713) was a French physicist, mathematician, and inventor, best known for his pioneering invention of the steam digester, the forerunner of the pressure cooker and of the steam engine.

This device allowed the heating of water to a temperature higher than the boiling point at atmospheric pressure, consequently reaching considerably high pressure inside. In 1680 Papin designed a model of digester that allowed a piston inside a cylinder to move as a result of the action of the steam pressure produced by the heating of the water.