Torricelli and the Ocean of Air: The First Measurement of Barometric Pressure

Abstract

The recognition of barometric pressure was a critical step in the development of environmental physiology. In 1644, Evangelista Torricelli described the first mercury barometer in a remarkable letter which contained the phrase “We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of the element air, which by unquestioned experiments is known to have weight”. This extraordinary insight seems to have come right out of the blue. Less than ten years before, the great Galileo had given an erroneous explanation for the related problem of pumping water from a deep well. Previously Gasparo Berti had filled a very long lead vertical tube with water and showed that a vacuum formed at the top. However Torricelli was the first to make a mercury barometer and understand that the mercury was supported by the pressure of the air. Aristotle stated that the air has weight although this was controversial for some time. Galileo described a method of measuring the weight of the air in detail but for reasons that are not clear his result was in error by a factor of about two. Torricelli surmised that the pressure of the air might be less on mountains but the first demonstration of this was by Blaise Pascal. The first air pump was built by Otto von Guericke and this influenced Robert Boyle to carry out his classical experiments of the physiological effects of reduced barometric pressure. These were turning points in the early history of high altitude physiology.