Otto Von  Guericke was a famous physicist, engineer and natural philosopher who invented the first air pump and used it to study vacuum and the role of air in combustion and respiration. Born on November 1602 in a rich family of Magdeburg, he was educated at the University of Leipzig. He studied Law at the University of Jena in 1621 and Mathematics and Engineering at the University of Leyden in 1623. In 1631 he became an engineer in the army of Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden.

From 1646 to 1681 he was the Mayor of Magdeburg and Magistrate of Brandenburg. There is an interesting story about how he became the Mayor. In 1618 a great was broke out in Germany which lasted for thirty years. Guericke contributed a lot in the war and became an engineer due to his education in Mechanics and Mathematics. But his side was defeated badly and the enemy took over Magdeburg. The city was ruined and about 30,000 people died in the war. Guericke, however, survived and later, he rebuilt the city and became its Mayor. He remained in this position for a period of 35 years.

As the Mayor of the city, he was always busily engaged but he used to spare some of his time for scientific research. He read a statement of Aristotle that a vacuum was impossible. Von Guericke saw this statement as a challenge. He knew that Galileo had proved that air has weight. He also had the knowledge about the Torricelli’s experiment in this connection. Based on these studies in 1650 he invented an air pump for creating a vacuum. It worked and he used it for further experiments. He further went on to prove that where as light travels through a vacuum, sound can not. He also demonstrated that neither candles could born nor life could survive in a vacuum chamber.

Von Guericke built many vacuum machines. He made two hemispheres of copper called Magdeburg hemispheres. With these hemispheres, he demonstrated the power of vacuum before Emperor Ferdinand III at Regensburg. Von Guericke  placed the two copper hemispheres together to form a hollow sphere of about 14 inches in diameter. In order to make these hemispheres air tight a leather ring dipped  in wax solution was placed around the joint of hemispheres. The air was removed from inside by using the vacuum pump he had constructed. After he removed the air from the hollow sphere 8 horses were tied to each hemisphere to pull them apart. But they could not pull them apart in the first attempt. At last when the horses pulled them apart with full force, a loud sound was produced due to sudden entry of air into the vacuum space inside the hemispheres. In this way, the tremendous force that air pressure exerts was demonstrated by Von Guericke.

He also demonstrated before the Emperor an easier method of separating the copper hemisphere. The horses were removed by the vacuum pump. To separate them, Otto Von rotated a stop- cork which was fitted in one of the hemisphere. This allowed air to rush into the vacuum and the two hemispheres were separated easily. This technique paved the way for harnessing and handling vacuum based apparatuses.

In 1663 Otto Von Guericke  invented the first electric generator which produced static electricity by applying friction against a revolving bulb of sulphur. Several years later in 1672 he discovered that the electricity thus produced could cause the surface of the sulphur ball to glow. Hence he became the first man to view electroluminescence.

Otto Von Guericke also studied astronomy and predicted that comets would return regularly from outer space. When he was eighty he retired and went to live in Hamburg where he passed away on May 11, 1686.