Drebbel, Cornelis (1572-1633)

Dutch inventor and alchemist. In the early 1600s he moved to England, where he tried to attract the patronage of James I by presenting him with a supposed perpetuum mobile. Drebbel was later involved in plans to drain fenland in East Anglia, and was famous as the inventor of a scarlet dye that he and his sons-in-law exploited at their dyeworks in Bow, London. Among his many inventions was a submarine, which he demonstrated in the River Thames.

A native of Alkmaar, Drebbel trained as an engraver under his brother-in-law Hendrick Goltzius, but subsequently turned his hand to hydraulic engineering.