Denis Papin (1647 - 1712)
(from page http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Papin.html)

Denis Papin invented the pressure cooker in 1679 and soon he demonstrated his “steam-fume chamber” in the Royal Society (Royal Scientific society) in London. The first Papin´s cooker was a dish with a very closely adjoining dish-cover. This made possible to create bigger pressure inside the dish. So the water boiled at far higher temperature than in a normal dish. In a normal dish boils the water at the temperature of 100°C. On the dish-cover there was a safety-valve, which should have avoid the explosion of the dish in case of excessive pressure elevance. Sir Christopher Wren, also the member of the Royal Society, allowed Papin to write a booklet about his invention. But the Papin´s cooker first found its exercise in the field of industry – as the so called sterilizer (pressure cooker used mainly for chemical processes). Its use in the kitchen, which was Papin´s greatest wish, had to wait.

Only in the 20^th century Papin´s cooker started to be used also for cooking. This first happened in the United States. Its popularity was growing mainly during the World War II, when the people realised how much fuel they can save with it, because the cooking time is much shorter. And moreover the cooked food-stuff kept its original flavour.

Today the cooker is protected against the overheating and the danger of explosion with a fuse. The reason is following: the safety-valve could be fouled with the cooked food and therefore would not work anymore. The steam couldn’t run out of the cooker to cut back the dangerous pressure. The fuse is a small disc from an easy fusible metal, which caulks the small gap in the dish-cover. At the very high temperature, the disc melts and the steam can easily run out of the pressure cooker.

(from page  http://www.raymondandco.com/raymond/5pcstainstee.html)