In 1865, after major improvements to Geissler’s pump, Hermann Sprengel invented the mercury vacuum pump. This tool made it possible to produce vacuums with less than one hundredth of an atmosphere in cathode ray and X-ray experiments1. A specimen of this apparatus is displayed in Museum Dr. Guislain in Ghent.
“Later adaptations will be added by Auguste Raps, and it is more particularly this last type of pump that Wilhelm Conrad Rõntgen will use”2.
- Photo by Luca Borghi @ (August 2009), courtesy of Museum Dr. Guislain.
- Locate the item on this Google Map