Cornelis Drebbel

Cornelis Drebbel (1572–1633) was a Dutch engineer and inventor born in Alkmaar. In 1598 he obtained a patent for a water-supply system and a perpetual clockwork. Around 1604 he moved to England, where he astonished the court with hydraulic automata and optical instruments.

In 1610 he entered Emperor Rudolf II's service in Prague, where he was imprisoned after the emperor's fall. He returned to London in 1613, and on a second stay in Prague was captured when the city fell in 1620. He built the first navigable submarine that same year and died in London in 1633.