A D V E N T U R E S in C Y B E R S O U N DOtto von Guericke: 1602 - 1686
Otto von Guericke, a natural philosopher who served as the mayor of Magdeburg, Germany, Otto von Guericke, b. Nov. 20, 1602, d. May 11, 1686, demonstrated experimentally the capacity of the atmosphere to do work and decisively refuted the long-held notion that it was impossible for a vacuum to exist. Using hollow copper spheres and an air pump of his own construction, Guericke demonstrated that a partial vacuum could be created by pumping the air out of the sphere. He also proved that the air remaining in the sphere (at a pressure below that of the atmosphere) was distributed evenly throughout the vessel. In 1657, Guericke carried out his famous demonstration that several teams of horses could not pull apart two joined hemispheres when the air within had been evacuated. Using a piston in a cylinder, he also showed that when a vacuum was created on one side of the piston, the atmosphere would move the piston and a considerable mass through a distance, thus performing work. This became the basic principle of the Newcomen steam engine (1712). David Hounshell Source: The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia
Otto von Guericke (b. Nov. 20, 1602, Magdeburg, Prussian Saxony [now in Germany] d. May 11, 1686, Hamburg), German physicist, engineer, and natural philosopher who invented the first air pump and used it to study the phenomenon of vacuum and the role of air in combustion and respiration. Guericke was educated at the University of Leipzig and studied law at the University of Jena in 1621 and mathematics and mechanics at the University of Leyden in 1623. In 1631 he became an engineer in the army of Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden, and from 1646 to 1681 he was bürgermeister (mayor) of Magdeburg and magistrate for Brandenburg. In 1650 Guericke invented the air pump, which he used to create a partial vacuum. His studies revealed that light travels through a vacuum but sound does not. In 1654, in a famous series of experiments that were performed before Emperor Ferdinand III at Regensburg, Guericke placed two copper bowls (Magdeburg hemispheres) together to form a hollow sphere about 35.5 cm (14 inches) in diameter. After he had removed the air from the sphere, horses were unable to pull the bowls apart, even though they were held together only by the air around them. Thus the tremendous force that air pressure exerts was first demonstrated. In 1663 he invented the first electric generator, which produced static electricity by applying friction against a revolving ball of sulfur. In 1672 he discovered that the electricity thus produced could cause the surface of the sulfur ball to glow; hence he became the first man to view electroluminescence. Guericke also studied astronomy and predicted that comets would return regularly from outer space.
Otto von Guericke 1. Dates Born: Magdeburg, 20 Nov. 1602, Died: Hamburg, 11 May 1686 2. Father Occupation: Aristocrat Hans Guericke descended from a patrician family long established in Magdeburg. The mother, nÈe Anna von Zweidorff, came from a similar family. The father, Hans, died in 1620 when von Guericke was eighteen. It is clear that the family was wealthy. Von Guericke inherited extensive property both in the city and in the countryside around it. 4. Education Schooling: Leipzig, Helmstadt, Jena, Leiden Studied in the Faculty of Arts in Leipzig, 1617-20. With the early stages of the Thirty Years War threateninng Leipzig, his parents moved him to Helmstedt. He was there only briefly before the death of his father called him home. In 1621-2 von Guericke studied law at Jena. 1622-5, enrolled in the Faculty of Law at Leiden; according to his own account, he also studied mathematics and fortification there. Von Guericke did not take any degree in all of this--in accordance with his standing and needs. After Leiden he spent nine months on a tour of parts of France and England before returning home in 1626. 6. Scientific Disciplines Primary: Natural Philosophy, Physics Subordinate: Astronomy, Electricity, Meteorology As a convinced Copernican, von Guericke was concerned with the nature of space and the possibility of empty space and the means of action across it. He constructed a physical world view, embodying Copernicanism, based on empty space across which magnetic action controls the movements of the planets. Each celestial body has its own finite sphere of activity. Von Guericke's experiments with the famous hemispheres led him to recognize the elasticity of air, which he investigated. When he learned of the Torricellian experiment, he repeated it, made barometric forecasts of the weather based on systematic observations over a period of years, and proposed a network of stations to make systematic reports of the barometer and weather. In addition to his interest in astronomy as a Copernican, von Guericke owned a telescope, which he apparently did not use extensively. He did observe the comet of 1664. He experimented with what we know to have been static electricity, although he did not recognize it as such. 7. Means of Support Primary: City Magistrate, Personal Means, Merchant Secondary: Government, Engineering When von Guericke returned home after his education, he was elected alderman of Magdeburg almost immediately, and he served the city continuously over the following fifty years. In 1630, he became city contractor. After the destruction of Magdeburg in 1631, as part of the Thirty Years War, when he had lost everything for the moment, von Guericke became an engineer (really military engineer) in the service first of Sweden, though the locale of the work was mostly Magdeburg, and then when control of the city passed into the hands of the Elector of Saxony in 1635, in his service. In this capacity, and also in his capacity as a magistrate of the city, von Guericke played a large role in its reconstruction. He functioned as a diplomatic representative of the city to the occupying powers, and later he represented the city at the peace negotiations that led to the Peace of Westphalia. Von Guericke attended the Imperial Diet at Regensburg (in the 50's). Diplomacy consumed much of his time from 1642 until 1666. He was elected one of the four rotating mayors of Magdeburg in 1646 and remained one of the mayors until 1676. He was enobled in 1666. Although I have been calling him von Guericke, this name is really correct only from 1666 on. Until then he was Otto Guericke. Von Guericke was also a brewer in Magdeburg. Although little is said about it, I tend to think that this must have contributed considerably to his income. 8. Patronage Type: Court Official Von Guericke dedicated his Experimenta nova, 1672, to the Elector of Brandenburg. He received no money became, as a letter explicitly stated, he was known to be wealthy. In 1663 he built one of his Wettermo/oonnchen in Berlin for the Great Elector. His relation to the Great Elector, who became sovreign over Magdeburg as a result of the Peace of Westphalia, is intriguing. Von Guericke's son was an official in Hamburg in the service of the Great Elector. Apparently the son arranged the construction of the Wettermo/oonnchen, and that incident raises the speculation that the clientage of von Guericke, who was a wealthy men, was performed for the benefit of his son. 9. Technological Involvement Types: Instruments, Military Engineering, Civil Engineering, Cartography He made his first suction pump in 1647 and continued in the following years to work at improving it into a real air pump. He also made what might be called the first static electric machine, a sulfur globe mounted on an axle. It is necessary here to note that von Guericke did not recognize the effect he generated as static electricity. He made a special barometer in which the column of mercury moved the arm of a man, which thus pointed out rising and falling pressure. This was the Wettermo/oonnchen. Von Guericke was an important man in rebuidling the city, both its fortifications and its bridges over the Elbe. After the destruction of Magdeburg, he drew up a map of the city for the Swedish authorities. 10. Scientific Societies Membership: None Through his diplomatic activity, which involved much travel, von Guericke came into contact with intellectual and scientific circles in Germany. He corresponded with Schott, Lubieniechy, Leibniz, et al. Some of the correspondence is published in the Schimank volume. Krafft's 1978 article publishes a catalogue of the correspondence. Sources
Compiled by: Richard S. Westfall Department of History and Philosophy of Science edited by Dr Russell Naughton
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