His experiment conducted of joining two copper hemispheres together and creating a vacuum inside them using his pump.
Then he brought a team of 8 horses to try to pull the copper hemispheres apart, which the horses were unable to do. However, as soon as air was released into them, they fell apart of their own accord. The same experiment was performed at the court of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg, only with three times as many horses as before.
His theory was later further developed by other scientists such as Newton in later years. Guericke also created the first frictional electrical generator in and studied the static charge of objects which later led to further developments in the field of electricity.
He also studied astronomy and the movements of planets and comets, constructed the first electrostatic generator and a crude barometer for weather forecasting in Obviously, the external air had substantial pressure; so much, infact, that the hemispheres held together when the internal air was removed.
It is interesting to note that Guericke placed the valve at the bottom of thehemispheres because he believed that air, like water, would seek the lowestlevel. Later he found that air was distributed evenly, since he could createa vacuum regardless of the location of the valve. This led him to think aboutthe density of air decreasing as one's altitude increased.
He studied variations in air pressure and, in , invented a barometer, which he used to make predictions about the weather. Another of Guericke's experiments pitted 50 men against his piston. A rope was attached to a piston in a cylinder and the men were told to pull. Guerickecreated a vacuum on the opposite side of the piston and the men were unable to keep the external air pressure from pushing the pistons into the cylinder.
The force of air pressure became very important later in the development of the steam engine. In a different vein, Guericke also invented the first mechanical static electricity generator, hinting at the future possibility of Robert Van de Graaff'sgenerator. Guericke rotated a sulfur sphere on a shaft. When it was rubbed,it built up an electrical charge that emitted sizeable sparks. In spite of his active political life Guericke managed to pursue his scientific interests as well.
He had become increasingly interested in the current debates concerning the possible existence of a vacuum and set out to experimentally investigate the problem. When he actually invented his vacuum pump is uncertain, though it was apparently about He had begun his experimental researches much earlier, and the instrument underwent a gradual evolution, having begun simply as a modified water pump.
Attempting to create a vacuum by pumping out the contents of a sealed container, Guericke sealed a wooden barrel, filled it with water, and then, using a pump, withdrew the water, believing that as the water was removed from below, a vacuum would be produced above it. As the water was withdrawn, however, air could be heard rushing into the barrel through the pores in the wood. After several failures and modifications Guericke succeeded in evacuating a large, specially constructed sphere made of metal and connected with carefully fitted parts to a pump.
He began with experimental investigations and came up with a real surprise: He designed the first air pump with which he actually succeeded in creating a vacuum for further experiments.
In a famous series of so-called "Magdeburger Experiments" that were performed before friends and guests in Magdeburg, von Guericke demonstrated the tremendous force that air pressure exerts. Teams of four, eight and even sixteen horses could not pull apart the two joined hemispheres when the air within had been evacuated. More experiments lead to greater knowledge: Von Guericke designed, for example, a barometer with a lengths of eleven meters, filled it with water and propped it up against the wall of his house.
He was able to observe the changes of atmospheric pressure and its influence on the weather with the barometer and to measure the air temperature with a thermometer.
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