Renaissance · Europe · Science

1650

Otto von Guericke Demonstrates the Vacuum

1650

The mayor of Magdeburg and amateur natural philosopher Otto von Guericke built an air pump, evacuated two copper hemispheres, and showed that sixteen horses could not pull them apart. The demonstration, later staged for the emperor, proved that atmospheric pressure was real and vacuum was possible. Nature no longer, clearly, abhorred it.

More from 1650 Renaissance

In context

Also in 1650 (3 other events on record)

Population of Americas Collapses · North America · Science
Descartes Dies in Stockholm · Europe · Science
Kangxi Emperor Born · East Asia · Politics

Before and after in Europe

Before: 1649: Diggers Dig at Saint George's Hill
After: September 3, 1651: Battle of Worcester

Before and after in Science

Before: 1647: Hevelius Maps the Moon
After: 1654: Pascal and Fermat Invent Probability

Era

Renaissance (1501–1650), one of 715 events from that era on Saeculum.