Drebbel,
the
Movie: A ‘bold’ mind. Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel (1572 - 1633)
Born-probably- in 1572 in the picturesque city of Alkmaar in North-Holland, where he grew up. Visited the Latin school of Rector Potter for several years. Alkmaar, in 1573 was the first city in the Low countries, that resisted a siege of the Spaniards. From 1598,
Drebbel registered several
patents.
The Staten General
(Staten Island in NY was named after this institution) granted him a patent
for a pump and a clock with perpetual motion. In 1602, he patented an improved
chimney-design. Later in life Drebbel designed and built many innovations such
as the microscope, an incubator, a solar energy system for London, air
conditioning, etc. He was a genius with Measurement & Control Systems and
Optics. Cornelis Drebbel and his family lived in various
places in Europe.
During his lifetime, the Seven United Provinces (now The Netherlands) were at war with the Spaniards; a war that lasted 80 years and resulted in the official founding of a new country : The Netherlands- unofficially in 1579 when the Provinces declared themselves independent from Spain with the Union of Utrecht. Officially and recognised internationally in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia. In the period 1606-1608 groups of Puritans leave England for Amsterdam to flee Anglican intolerance; finally they settle in Leiden. Leaving in 1620 for New England, because they do want their children to grow up in (too) tolerant Netherlands. Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch enters, in 1609, Manhattan Harbor on the ship Halve Moon. Plymouth in New England, established by these Puritans sponsored by Virginia Company
New Amsterdam, in 1624, established by Dutch West India Company. 1664: New Amsterdam ceded to the English, the name changed to Fort James and then New York. On November 5 1626, Pieter Schagen from Alkmaar sends a letter to the States General in which he describes the situation of New Amsterdam and he announces that the island of Manhattan has been purchased from the Indians for goods worth sixty Dutch guilders.
Fort
Amsterdam
now New York
1626, Letter of Pieter Schaghen from the city of Alkmaar
about the purchase of Manhattan from the Indians
In 1590, Drebbel moved to Haarlem and became an apprentice at the
Academy of the engraver Hendrick Goltzius and writer/painter/humanist Carel van
Mander. There, he met his future wife, Sophia Goltzius, a sister of Hendrick. They marry in 1595
and get two sons and two daughters.
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In 1604,
Cornelis Drebbel, his wife Sophia and their children leave for England.
Probably invited by James VI the Stuart king of Scotland, who became King James
I of England as successor of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth. Drebbel was invited
because of his fame as technical innovator and builder of a Perpetuum Mobile
that 'worked' through shifts in air temperature and pressure. The statesman and
philosopher, Francis Bacon was quarter-maker, member of the commission, that
investigated, at the order of James I-VI whether Eltham Palace will be suitable
for the household of an ‘important stranger’. Bacon and Drebbel probably
co-operated in London. Francis wrote’ the book The Advancement of Learning’ in
1605. In it, he introduces his famous project for the promotion of scientific
progress, the Great Instauration. And Nova Atlantis, an utopian society with
many innovations. Cornelis Drebbel constructions and innovations are mentioned
in these books.
‘I have
taken all knowledge to be my province’
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
In his years at the Jacobean court, Drebbel is one of the tutors of
Prince Henry, the son of James. As ‘court engineer for special effects’, he is
involved in the masquerades, that are played at the Globe Theatre and at the
court. Reluctantly, James ‘borrows’ Drebbel to Rudolph II, the Holy Roman
Emperor, and Cornelis and his family spent 2 years at the court in Prague (1610
- 1612). He is back in England in1613.
Cornelis, Renaissance man, is an experimenter and empirist in the best
Baconian tradition. Maybe
he wasn’t a ‘real’ scientist, more a ‘vernufteling’. Drebbel, inventor,
engineer, practicing technologist, resembles Thomas Edison. Active and creative: Drebbel constructed the first microscopes with two sets of
convex lenses, with which 'new worlds' were discovered. The lenses
were made with his lens-grinding machine.
He improved the telescope. His sons in law sold these devices throughout
Europe. He manufactured and sold ‘laterna magica’ and camera obscura with a lens in the
aperture, that projected images and which were used by Dutch painters like
Vermeer. Based on his knowledge of ‘regulation’ of air, he developed a kind of’ thermometer, improved the barometer and ovens, furnaces, and
incubators, that worked with a thermostatic
regulator that controlled the air temperature. He made a clavecimbel that played on the rays of the sun or the heat of King
James' hand and was able to let it rain, made artificial lightning and thunder
on command. Developed and applied air conditioning: ‘the court that attended
that demonstration fled because of the cold inside the demo-room; while –mid
July- it was hot outside. His two sons-in-law started in Stratford-at-Bow-on-Lea, a dying business, based on his invention.
And - most spectacular - he ‘sailed between two waters’; In 1620 he made
a trip with his submarine from the Towerbridge to Greenwich, with help of a fiery spirit (oxygen) to keep
the crew of 12 oarsmen alive. Drebbel probably found a way to make oxygen from heating
saltpeter. In 1662 Robert Boyle (1627-1691), one of
the founders of modern chemistry and the Royal Society, wrote that he had
spoken with 'an excellent mathematician', who was still alive and had been
on the submarine, who said that Drebbel had a 'chemical liquor' that would
replace that 'quintessence of air' that was able to 'cherish the vial flame
residing in the heart'.
Drebbel, aged around 55 years.
During
1626 to 1628, after the death of James, Drebbel worked for the Office of
Ordnance of the British Navy.
He
manufactured floating ‘petards and firebombs, that were used by the military on
the relieve of the French Huguenots under siege at La Rochelle. In his final years, he was involved in a
drainage project in East Anglia.
From
1629 until his death in 1633, he earned a living by keeping an alehouse.
Drebbel died in London on November 8, 1633.
The Hermitage in St. Petersburg owns
a portrait by
Anthony van Dijck. This might be Cornelis Jacobszn, painted
around 1623/33 in London.
In 1998, on the moon at -40,9 degrees latitude and 49 degrees longitude in the Clementine system, a crater with a diameter of 30 km is named Drebbel: one of the first Dutchmen on the moon. A nice token of his immortality. In Disney World in Orlando, at Epcot in the Pavilion the Living Seas, a picture of Drebbel and his sub-marine were at the entrance, now replaced by Nemo and his friends. Drebbel also figures in Startrek, the four Musqueteers and an episode of Sealab.
Suggested Episodes in ‘a’ film / multi-media project: ‘The past is prologue’[1]
From alchemy to
the new sciences; the road to enlightenment and
the Industrial revolution
Episode 1: 1572 Drebbel is born in a violent
society. the Seven United Provinces are at war with the Spaniards, August 23 or 24, 1572
the Bartholomew’s-night or Parisian Blood Wedding in Paris. The
fall of Harlem and the siege and liberation of the city of Alkmaar from the
Spanish army.
Episode 2: The citizens of
Alkmaar and surroundings start a wave of innovations. Mapping, measuring,
mills, etc. Wilhelm von Nassau murdered, Schagen the poet, etc. Haarlem; humanism, Coornhert, Carel van Mander, Goltzius, visit of
Leicester, Drebbel marries Sophia Goltzius, etc.
Episode 3: England in 1604: James VI – I arrives in
London, Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, Constantijn Huygens, Stevin, Maurits,
Oldebarneveldt, Bacon, Sonoy
Episode 4: Prague, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Dr. Dee,
perpetuum mobile, Rudolph II
Episode 5: England again: death of Prince Henry,
submarine, microscope, visits of Constantijn Huygens, Francis Bacon,
Episode 6: France: de Peiresc, Rubens, Kircher,
Episode 7 : England: Buckingham, Gerbier, battle at La Rochelle, Cambridge
Market:
European broadcasting potential as Drebbel and his family lives and travels
throughout Europe; Also interesting for
USA audience: Leyden and Pilgrim fathers, Governor Winthrop in Connecticut, New
Amsterdam, etc.
Subsidies ? www.stimuleringsfonds.nl European Union has an innovation program named
Artemis. Budget € 1,5 bn. Drebbel, as a European ‘Edison’ might act as a
catalyst for such program.
January 2007, written by: Hubert van Onna, Luiveland 20, 1861 JD Bergen, The
Netherlands