Experiments That Changed History

Prior to 1600 the science industry was small, mainlyessential for combustion and for respiration by
supporting theactivities of University "experimenters"livingcreatures. And in observing that the volume of a
and philosophers. All thatwas to change with a seriesgas varies inverselywith pressure, he arrived at his
of discoveries that would pave the way forthefamous law of pneumatics,posthumously named
industrial revolution.Boyle's law.
In the early 1650's OTTO VON GUERICKE ,a GermanAll of this work can be seen as a direct consequence
experimentalphilosopher, was making observations byof the Von
experimenting with a pump onwater placed in a barrel,Guericke Magdeburg hemisphere experiment and for
but found that when the water was drawn offthe airthe rest of theseventeenth century, people worked to
permeated the wood. - He then took a globe offind a way to make use of theforces that Von
copper fittedwith pump and stopcock, and discoveredGuericke and Boyle had described.
that he could pump out air aswell as water. Thus heThere were also "side" issues from the sphere
became the inventor of the air-pump (1650).experiments, in that theresults led Boyle and other
He illustrated his discovery before the emperorchemists to look directly at the nature ofgases and,
Ferdinand III atindirectly, to the formulation of atomic theory. It couldbe
Regensburg in 1654, by the experiment of thesaid that the transition from Alchemy to Chemistry
"Magdeburg hemispheres."came from Boyle,via the Magdeberg experiments,
Taking two hollow hemispheres of copper, twentyushering in the era of chemistry as abusiness.
inches in diameter,the edges of which fitted nicelyThe industrial revolution led to a rapid expansion in the
together, he exhausted the air frombetween them byactualindustry of science, as ever more machines
means of his pump, and it is recorded that thirtyhorses,were built andexperimenters made ever more
fifteen back to back, were unable to pull them asunderdiscoveries, which led to ever moredemand for
untilthe air was readmitted.materials and an industry to support and
By this experiment Von Guericke showed the worlddriveindustrialisation.
that seeminglyinsubstantial gases could exertFor example, other aspects of Boyle's work
astonishing forces -- forces thatcould probably bedirectlyinfluenced by the Magdeburg spheres
harnessed. Effectively, Von Guericke hadexperiment led to the discovery ofoxygen, which in
discoveredthe vacuum pump, and also demonstratedturn led to work on combustion, respiratory
the force of atmosphericpressure using his pump.diseasesand the analysis of the elements. It also
Without that experiment's results, the wholeindustrialhelped to solve the problemsof mine drainage, and
revolution, and the science industry that was builtproduced advances in metallurgy, notably
tosupport it, would have gone in a different direction.steelproduction. The examination of gasses would one
In 1657, upon learning of the invention of the air pumpday lead to theinvestigation of light passing through the
by Otto vongasses, and that in turn tothe discovery of cathode
Guericke, Robert Boyle followed up the work andrays and the television set.
showed that a vacuumSo without Von Guericke's work, it could reasonably
(or at least a near vacuum) could exist. In Newbe said that therewould be no vacuum pumps and no
Experimentssteam engines, no industrialrevolution, no mass
Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air,production of metals, no internal combustionengine, no
and Its Effectstelevision.
(1660), Boyle described some 43 experiments with theIt wouldn't be just the science industry thatwas
air pump. Amonghis many conclusions, he noted thatdifferent...the whole industrialised world would be a
air has weight, exerts pressure,and is elastic; thatverydifferent place today.
sound cannot travel through a vacuum; and thatair is