Vacuum

Evangelista Torricelli

I started watching Geissler Tubes - Periodic Table of Videos, but the professor is not the most engaging speaker. The subject is intriguing, so I go rooting around and find a all kinds of interesting stuff.

• Chemistry World has good story about the whole three century ordeal, but their website seems to be a little flakey. Fortunately, I made a copy of the story and you can read it here.
• Heinrich Geißler (1814 – 1879), famous for his invention of the Geissler tube.
• Julius Plücker (1801 – 1868), pioneer in the investigations of cathode rays that led eventually to the discovery of the electron. He asked Heinrich to make him a vacuum pump. 
• Hermann Sprengel FRS (1834 – 1906), chemist, who also happened to invent the mercurial air pump, a big improvement over Heinrich's pump.
• The Cathode Ray Tube site has a page about Geissler Tubes.
• Previous related post.