Note 2 — HOME STUDIES IN CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
Reading edition
“Torricelli,” tor-ri-celˈli. (1608-1647.) A celebrated Italian mathematician and philosopher. He made himself renowned for all time by his interpretation of the fact that water will rise in a suction pump to a height of thirty-two feet, which, up to his time, had been explained on the ground that “nature abhors a vacuum;” above that limit the law was modified. Torricelli employed mercury to perform this experiment, and soon found the clue to the mystery. He discovered that the column of fluid was sustained by the pressure of the atmosphere on the open surface of the fluid.