Evangelista Torricelli
1608–1647 · Italian · Scientific Revolution
Known for: Invented the barometer and proved the existence of atmospheric pressure
Evangelista Torricelli was Galileo's last student—literally assisting the blind master in his final months. He invented the mercury barometer by filling a tube with mercury and inverting it, creating the first laboratory vacuum and proving that atmospheric pressure exists.
He declared 'We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of air'—one of the most poetic lines in scientific history. He died of typhoid at 39.
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