, counsellor to the elector of Brandenbourg, and burgomaster of Magdebourg,
, counsellor to the elector
of Brandenbourg, and burgomaster of Magdebourg, was
born in 1602, and died in 1686 at Hambourg. He was
oae of the greatest philosophers of his time. It was Guericke that invented the air-pump; the two brass hemispheres, which being applied to each other, and the air
exhausted, sixteen horses were not able to draw them
asunder; the marrnouset of glass which descended in a
tube in rainy weather, and rose again on the return of
serene weather. This last machine fell into disuse on the
invention of the barometer, especially after Huygens and
Amontous gave theirs to the world. Guericke made use
of his marmouset to foretell storms from whence he was
looked upon as a sorcerer by the people and the thunder
having one day fallen upon his house, and shivered to pieces
several machines which he had employed in his
exporixnents, they asserted that it was a punishment from heaven.
Guericke was author of several works in natural philosophy, the principal of which was his “Experimenta Magdeburgica,
”