Blaise Pascal's Barometer
During the seventeenth century, many great thinkers did not think it possible that a vacuum could exist or could be created. They believed that what lay on top of the mercury in Toricelli's glass tube was an unseen form of matter. A young child prodigy who grew up to be Blaise Pascal was able to prove them wrong. Further studying Toricelli's discovery, Blaise Pascal, studied and proved that a vacuum did exist within Toricelli's tube. Through his proof of the vacuum, he also helped advance the cause of science in his century.
Just like Toricelli, Pascal noticed that the mercury inside the tube would rise and fall from day to day. Toricelli had theorized that these fluctuations were due to something affecting the tube and the vacuum. Having a naturally inquisitive mind, and always wanting to know the answer to a problem, Pascal sought to find out what can affect the mercury inside this vacuum.
Pascal felt there must be some force that kept the mercury within the tube, and that there truly was a vacuum within the tube. With some help, he carried his mercury barometer up and down a church tower in Paris, watching the mercury rise and fall as he too went down and up the tower steps. He in turn observed the conditions in which the mercury would move. Through his observations, he concluded that the force affecting the mercury was pressure from the outside.
From this experiment Pascal was able to discuss and write a book on how liquids react to air pressure. Apart from that, he was able to prove the existence of the vacuum. The experiment was a success because it also showed European society that the inverted glass tube of mercury did have a use. It was as a barometer or an instrument used to predict atmospheric pressure.
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