1602-1686

German Physicist

Otto von Guericke, a German aristocrat and politician, made important contributions to two of the liveliest areas of physical investigation in the seventeenth century. He is credited with the invention of the air pump, a device that facilitated the study of the phenomena of vacuums. Von Guericke also constructed one of the earliest machines to produce static electricity.

Von Guericke was born in Magdeburg, a prosperous city in central Germany, into a wealthy and politically influential family. He studied law, science, and engineering at the universities of Leipzig, Helmstedt, Jena, and Leiden. Upon the completion of his studies in 1625, Guericke returned to Magdeburg where he was made an alderman, the start of a long period of public service to his native city.

Catholic troops in the service of the Hapsburg emperor set siege to Lutheran Magdeburg in 1631. Magdeburg was decimated by...