Physicist and engineer, b. 20 November 1602 (Magdeburg, Prussian Saxony), d. 11 May 1686 (Hamburg).
Guericke began his studies at the University of Leipzig and continued with studies in law at the University of Jena and in mathematics and mechanics at the University of Leyden. In 1631 he became an engineer in the army of king Gustav II Adolf of Sweden. From 1646 to 1681 he was Bürgermeister (Mayor) of Magdeburg.
In 1650 Guericke invented the air pump to produce a partial vacuum. By experiment he discovered that light travels through vacuum but sound does not. An electrical generator, which he invented in 1663, produced static electricity by applying friction against a revolving ball of sulphur.
Guericke was not only an inventive engineer but also an expert in showmanship. In 1654 he performed a series of public demonstration experiments for the benefit of Emperor Ferdinand III. In the most famous of these experiments he placed two hollow hemispheres of about 35.5 cm diameter against each other and pumped the air out from the space between them. To demonstrate the pressure exerted by the atmosphere on the nearly empty space between the hemispheres he had 8 horses put to each hemisphere: The horses were unable to separate the hemispheres until air was again let in to fill the space between them. It would of course have been sufficient to use horses only on one hemisphere and attach the other hemisphere to a wall, but the effect would have been less spectacular.
A historical illustration of Guericke's demonstration