author
Otto von Guericke
1602–1686
A mayor, inventor, and natural philosopher, he helped turn the study of air and empty space into one of the great scientific adventures of the seventeenth century. He is best remembered for dramatic vacuum experiments, including the famous Magdeburg hemispheres.
1 Audiobook
Geschichte der Belagerung, Eroberung und Zerstörung Magdeburg's
by Otto von Guericke
About the author
Born in Magdeburg in 1602, Otto von Guericke studied law and philosophy before public life drew him into politics and diplomacy. He served his city for many years, including as mayor, while living through the upheavals of the Thirty Years' War.
Alongside that civic career, he carried out pioneering experiments on air pressure and the vacuum. He developed an early air pump and used it to test how air behaves in combustion, breathing, and empty space, helping challenge older ideas that a vacuum could not exist.
His most celebrated demonstration used two metal hemispheres sealed together with the air pumped out inside them. Even teams of horses struggled to pull them apart, making the force of atmospheric pressure unforgettable. His work made him one of the key early figures in experimental physics.