奥托·冯·居里克1602—1686

Otto von Guericke (UK: GAIR-ik-ə, US: G(W)AIR-ik-ə, -⁠ee; German: [ˈɔtoː fɔn ˈɡeːʁɪkə]; spelled Gericke until 1666; 30 November [O.S. 20 November] 1602 – 21 May [O.S. 11 May] 1686) was a German scientist, inventor, mathematician, and physicist. His pioneering scientific work, the development of experimental methods and repeatable demonstrations on the physics of the vacuum, atmospheric pressure, electrostatic repulsion, his advocacy for the reality of "action at a distance" and of "absolute space" were noteworthy contributions for the advancement of the Scientific Revolution.

Biography

Early life and education

Otto von Guericke was born to a patrician family of Magdeburg. He was privately tutored until the age of fifteen. In 1617 he began studying law and philosophy at the Leipzig University. However, in 1620 his studies were disrupted by his father's death. He briefly returned home before continuing his studies at the Academia Julia in Helmstedt and the universities of Jena and Leiden. It was at Leiden that he first attended courses on mathematics, physics and military engineering. He concluded his academic education with a nine-month Grand Tour to France and England.

Family

Upon his return to Magdeburg in 1626 he married Margarethe Alemann, with whom he had three children (Anna Catherine, Hans Otto, and Jacob Christopher) before her untimely death in 1645. Anna Catherine and Jacob Christopher both died in infancy and in 1652 von Guericke married Dorothea Lentke.

Political career

Von Guericke was the offspring of one of Magdeburg's leading patrician families, that were well-educated and well-connected. His father and grandfather had been life-long members of the city council and at various occasions during their careers been appointed to serve as mayor of the city. In 1626, Otto von Guericke started his career as political representative of Magdeburg and accepted an official appointment to join the city council. However, in 1618, the Thirty Years' War had broken out. This exceptionally long, tragic and destructive conflict would soon also descend upon Magdeburg. Only a few years later, he had luckily fled from the city before an army of the imperial Catholic League, led by the Count of Tilly had completely surrounded and cut off Magdeburg. The attack culminated in the single most devastating event of the entire war, namely the Sack of Magdeburg. In May 1631, the imperial troops had crushed the city walls and indiscriminately plundered the riches. Around eighty percent of its more than 25,000 inhabitants perished.

Scientific work

Nature of Space and the Possibility of the Void

Book II of the Experimenta Nova is an extended philosophical essay in which von Guericke puts forward a view of the nature of space similar to that later espoused by Newton. He is explicitly critical of the plenist views of Aristotle and of their adoption by his younger contemporary Descartes. A particular and repeated target of his criticism is the manner in which the "nature abhors a vacuum" principle had migrated from simply a matter of experiment to a high principle of physics which could be invoked to explain phenomena such as suction but which itself was above question. In setting out his own view, von Guericke, while acknowledging the influence of previous philosophers such as Lessius (but not Gassendi), makes it clear that he considers his thinking on this topic to be original and new. There is no evidence that von Guericke was aware of the Nouvelles Experiences touchant le vide of Blaise Pascal published in 1647. In the Experimenta Nova, Book III, Ch. 34, he relates how he first became aware of Torricelli's mercury tube experiment from Valerianus Magnus at Regensburg in 1654. Pascal's work built upon reports of the mercury tube experiment which had reached Paris via Marin Mersenne in 1644. An indication of the unresolved status of the "nature abhors a vacuum" principle at that time may be taken from Pascal's opinion, expressed in the conclusion of the Nouvelles Experiences, when he writes: "I hold for true the maxims set out below: (a) that all bodies possess a repugnance to being separated one from another and from admitting a vacuum in the interval between them – that is to say that nature abhors a void." Pascal goes on to claim that this abhorrence of a void is, however, a limited force and thus that the creation of a vacuum is possible.

There were three broad currents of opinion from which von Guericke dissented.