<P> John Hadley (1682--1744) was the inventor of the octant, the precursor to the sextant (invented by John Bird), which greatly improved the science of navigation . </P> <P> Denis Papin (1647--1712) was best known for his pioneering invention of the steam digester, the forerunner of the steam engine . The first working steam engine was patented in 1698 by the inventor Thomas Savery, as a "...new invention for raising of water and occasioning motion to all sorts of mill work by the impellent force of fire, which will be of great use and advantage for drayning mines, serveing townes with water, and for the working of all sorts of mills where they have not the benefitt of water nor constant windes ." (sic) The invention was demonstrated to the Royal Society on 14 June 1699 and the machine was described by Savery in his book The Miner's Friend; or, An Engine to Raise Water by Fire (1702), in which he claimed that it could pump water out of mines . Thomas Newcomen (1664--1729) perfected the practical steam engine for pumping water, the Newcomen steam engine . Consequently, Thomas Newcomen can be regarded as a forefather of the Industrial Revolution . </P> <P> Abraham Darby I (1678--1717) was the first, and most famous, of three generations of the Darby family who played an important role in the Industrial Revolution . He developed a method of producing high - grade iron in a blast furnace fueled by coke rather than charcoal . This was a major step forward in the production of iron as a raw material for the Industrial Revolution . </P> <P> Refracting telescopes first appeared in the Netherlands in 1608, apparently the product of spectacle makers experimenting with lenses . The inventor is unknown but Hans Lippershey applied for the first patent, followed by Jacob Metius of Alkmaar . Galileo was one of the first scientists to use this new tool for his astronomical observations in 1609 . </P>

Why did science come to dominate thought in early modern europe