Fig. 5
CONCLUSION
It demonstrates that the air is exerting a pressure from below on the paper, which is more than enough to support the weight of the water. The tumbler may be placed in any position and yet the water will stay in. This air pressure is exerted alike from all directions, and this pressure, which is 14.7 pounds to the square inch, is weighed down by the air about it and may be likened very much to ordinary water in that it exerts pressure in all directions.
EXPERIMENT NO. 3
Take an ordinary rubber sucker, such as is used on the end of a dart, and attach it to a string. Force this down on a piece of glass. (See Fig. [5].) The glass can then by lifted by the pressure of the air that holds the rubber to it.
We are indebted to a German experimental philosopher named Otto Von Guericke for knowledge of atmospheric pressure. Guericke is distinguished by his original discoveries of the properties of the air. He was born at Magdeburg in Prussian Saxony, November 20, 1602. He became interested at an early age in the politics of his city, and in 1627 was elected alderman, and in 1646 Mayor of Magdeburg. While serving in the above capacities, he devoted his leisure to science, especially on the creation of a vacuum and the action of bodies in a vacuum. His first experiments were conducted with a pump on a barrel of water. After drawing off all the water, he still found that air permeated the wood of the barrel, so he substituted a globe of copper and pumped out air also. He thus became the inventor of the air pump and illustrated in a simple but effective way the force of atmospheric pressure.
Fig. 6
By placing two hollow hemispheres of copper (see Fig. [6]) together, and exhausting the air, he found that fifteen horses pulling one way and fifteen pulling the opposite were unable to pull the hemispheres apart.