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Feb 15, 1564
Birth of Galileo Galilei
He developed a type of thermometer - the Thermoscope - based on the principle he discovered that the density of a liquid changes in proportion to its temperature. It had a cylinder filled with clear liquid and small individual vessels with different densities within it; they floated depending on the temperature. His device showed the changes in temperature, the concept of temperature being measurable was developed later on. He was 28 years old on his claim to fame. -
Birth of Otto von Guericke
He investigated and established the physics of a vacuum: a space that is empty of matter. He did numerous experiments on the properties of a vacuum by using a vacuum pump that he invented around 1650. He was 27 when he did his claim to fame: the vacuum pumped that he made allowed him to do experiments. -
Birth of Evangelista Torricelli
When he demonstrated the first mercury barometer, he garnered a lot of attention. He is credited for being the first man to create a sustained vacuum. He concluded that the change in height of the mercury from day to day was caused by changes in the atmospheric temperature. Over time, 760 mm of mercury was regarded as the standard atmospheric temperature and was named after him as an honour. He was 36 on his claim to fame. -
Birth of Blaise Pascal
By experimenting on atmospheric pressure with the use of a barometer, Pascal observed that the pressure of the atmosphere decreases with height. Eventually the Pa, a unit of atmospheric pressure was named after him. He was 25 when he made his claim to fame. -
Birth of Christiaan Huygens
He developed the u-tube manometer: a u-shaped tube filled with water or mercury to measure the pressure of gas. He was 32 years old on his claim to fame. -
Death of Galileo Galilei
He died at an age of 77. Galileo published his study of a heliocentric, or Sun centered universe. At that time, the Catholic Church who had a large influence and was very powerful, supported the idea of a geocentric, or an Earth centered universe. He was sentenced to life imprisonment under house arrest as a result. Picture: A Heliocentric model -
Death of Evangelista Torricelli
He died at an age of 39. Torricelli's barometer was the solution of the problem that the pump makers of the Grand Duke of Tuscany had. Using water would require a long tube (10 meters) so he used mercury that is 14 times denser than water and required a tube approx. 1 meter long. Picture: Mercury Barometer -
Death of Blaise Pascal
Pascal died at the age of 39. He invented the "Pascaline", a mechanical calculator that was considered to be ahead of its time; he was burdened by the arithmetic labour involved in his father's job as a tax supervisor. Picture: Pascaline Picture: Pascaline -
Death of Otto von Guericke
He died at an age of 83. Guericke invented the manometer, an instrument that measures pressure. Picture: Guericke manometer experiment using horses. -
Death of Christiaan Huygens
He was 66 years old on his death. Huygens built the worlds first pendulum clock. The pendulum technology was used for 300 years, but some improvements were made on Huygen's invention by then. Picture: Pendulum clock -
Birth of John Dalton
He developed what is now known as the creatively named Dalton's law that stated: the total pressure exerted by the mixture of nonreactive gasses is equal to the sum of partial pressures of individual gases. He was 35 on his claim of fame. -
Birth of Amedeo Avogadro
He described the relationship between masses of the same volume of different gases (at the same temperature and pressure) correspond to the relationship between their weights. The relative molecular mass of a gas can be found from the mass of the known volume. He was 32 years old on his claim of fame. -
Death of John Dalton
He died at an age of 78. He attended John Fletcher's Quaker Grammar School in Eaglesfield. At the age of 12, he assisted his brother in teaching at the school. Picture: An example of a grammar school during the late 1700s. -
Death of Amedeo Avogadro
He died at an age of 79. Avogadro took part in revolutionary movements against King Victor Emmanuel in 1821 and lost his chair at the university he worked at. Picture: Caricature of King Victor Emmanuel
