"Of fundamental importance for the study of the physical properties of gases was the invention of the air-pump by , about the middle of the seventeenth century. ...The form of the instrument underwent a gradual evolution in his hands. The earlier types were of very simple design (see Illustr. [Fig. 1]). The first consisted of a cask well caulked with pitch and filled with water, which was evacuated by means of a brass pump having two valves. As the water was pumped out, however, the air was heard rushing through the pores of the wooden cask. A similar result was obtained when the cask was completely enclosed in a larger one, also containing water. Guericke accordingly gave up using wooden vessels, and attempted instead to evacuate a copper sphere from which he pumped out the air directly without previously filling it with water. ...[T]he sphere collapsed ...owing ...to the pressure of the external air, the vessel not having been made perfectly spherical. Guericke ...had another ...constructed ...and succeeded in obtaining a fairly high vacua. This must have been before 1654..."
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Abraham Wolf, A History of Science, Technology and Philosophy: in the 16th & 17th Centuries (1935) Vol. 1, Ch. V. Scientific Instruments.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/History_of_technology
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History of technology
is the history of the invention of tools and techniques and is similar to other sides of the history of humanity. Technology can refer to methods ranging from as simple as language and stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and information technology that has emerged since the 1980s. The term technology comes from the Greek word , meaning art and craft, and the word logos, meaning word and speech. It was first used to describe applied arts, but it is now used to described advancements an
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