Thanks Gedeon,
My french isn't too appalling, but I can't find their 'cherche' box anywhere!
Ah, I need to "acceder aux service"…
Blimey his "pompe alimentaire perfectionnée" of 1937 sounds a bit nasty!
This is the document (you may need to accede to see it): bases-brevets19e.inpi.fr/Thot/FrmLotDocFrame.asp unfortunately my french is only able to pick out odd words from lightly pixelated 19th century handwriting!
Google has the 1852 US patent which is a bit more readable (auto-OCR'd so full of spelling errors!) It confirms he knew it would work for vacuum as well as pressure from the start.
It's interesting that he thought of using it for a governor.
Neil