Cornelis Drebbel

Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel, born in Alkmaar in 1572 and died in London on 7 November 1633, was a Dutch engineer and inventor who worked at the courts of England and Prague. He is best remembered for the first navigable submarine, built in 1620, but his work also touched heat and energy. Wikipedia lists a portable stove or oven that made optimal use of fuel and held a constant temperature by means of a regulator, an egg incubator kept steady by a mercury thermostat, described as one of the first recorded feedback controlled devices, and a solar energy system for London, described as a perpetual fire. Late in life he was also involved in a plan to drain the Fens around Cambridge. The solar claims rest on a brief summary rather than a detailed account, so they are best read as attributions.