Vacuum pump and Magdeburg hemispheres
Bomba de vacío y hemisferios de Magdeburgo
- Date
- 1654 · confidence high
- Place
- Magdeburg, Germany
- Credited to
- Otto von Guericke
- People
- 👤 Otto von Guericke1602–1686
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Guericke builds the first vacuum pump and demonstrates before the Diet of Regensburg that two evacuated hemispheres cannot be pulled apart even by teams of horses. A spectacular proof of the force of atmospheric pressure and of the possibility of a vacuum.
The most famous public demonstration took place in Magdeburg in 1657.
What it led to
- Experimental pneumatics (Boyle, Hooke)
- Atmospheric engine (Papin, Newcomen)
- Vacuum tubes and cathode rays
- Modern vacuum technology
Built on
- Torricelli's barometer
- Water pumps
Made possible
- Sprengel pump1865
- Newcomen steam engine
- Light bulb and thermionic valve
- Discharge tubes