Destruction of Papin's steamboat. Illustration of the 1707 journey by French physicist and engineer Denis Papin (1647-1712). Papin had built a paddle-steamer powered by a piston-in-cylinder steam engine he had devised in 1690. He wanted permission from the Hanoverian government to navigate the river Weser, but was unsuccessful. At Munden his vessel was attacked and destroyed by a mob of local river boatmen who feared for their livelihoods. Artwork from 'Chaudieres et Machines a Vapeur' (1911) by French civil engineer Max de Nansouty (1854-1913), part of the 'Les merveilles de la science' series of 1867-1891 by Louis Figuier.