1572-1633

Dutch Alchemist, Inventor, and Engineer

Cornelius Drebbel is best known as one of the possible inventors of the thermometer. A celebrated wonder-worker in his day, Drebbel's experimental investigations in chemistry and physics may have been of real significance, but his penchant for secrecy and mysticism meant that many of his ideas died with him and had to be rediscovered.

Drebbel was born in 1572 at Alkmaar in West Friesland of the Netherlands. His father, Jacob Jansz, was a burgher of Alkmaar. Drebbel received only an elementary education and was apprenticed to the famous Haarlem engraver Hendrik Goltzius. In 1595 he married Sophia Jansdocther, a younger sister of Goltzius, and settled in Alkmaar, where he established himself as an engraver and mapmaker. Shortly thereafter he devoted himself to developing his mechanical inventions: receiving patents for a pump and a perpetual-motion clock in 1598; building a fountain for the town...