 Archimedes' screw |
Pneumatics and hydrostatics are the two branches of mechanics to which the experimental and didactic apparatus displayed in this room belong. Pneumatics underwent extraordinary development consequent to Torricelli's experiment of 1644, making it possible to produce a vacuum in a glass tube for the descent of mercury. Subsequently, the vacuum was produced by pumps of increasingly refined design. Pneumatics occupied a place of major importance in the manuals on physics written in the latter half of the seventeenth century. Hydrostatics too was enormously stimulated by Torricelli's experimentation on atmospheric pressure. Mainly due to perfections introduced by the research on hydrostatics conducted by Blaise Pascal (1632-62), it was possible to derive numerous technological applications from this discipline, such as fountains, fire-extinguisher pumps and suction pumps. |