Accession No
1941.1
Brief Description
pair of magdeburg hemispheres, 19th Century
Origin
Maker
Class
physics
Earliest Date
1800
Latest Date
1894
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass); hide (leather
Dimensions
length 208mm; max diameter 108mm
Special Collection
Cavendish collection
Provenance
Transferred from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, from 1974. It is recorded in the Cavendish Laboratory's 1894 alphabetical catalogue of apparatus on p.87.
Inscription
Description Notes
Pair of brass magdeburg hemispheres, one with handle, the other with screw for attachment to air pump, leather washer and valve tap.
Condition fair (brass very marked); complete
References
Events
Description
Magdeburg hemispheres are demonstration apparatus that work in conjunction with vacuum pumps, when connected to a vacuum pump the hemispheres are placed together and a partial vacuum is created. It is then incredibly difficult to separate the hemispheres.
This was most famously demonstrated by Otto von Guericke (the inventor of the vacuum pump) in the German town of Magdeburg in 1654. Von Guericke used his recent invention to evacuate the air from between the hemispheres and then tied a team of eight horses to each side, this effectively demonstrated the strength of the vacuum, as the horses failed to separate the hemispheres.
A picture of the experiment can be seen to the right:
FM:45674
Images (Click to view full size):
