Sprinkling pump
The Sprengel Pump is a vacuum pump in which the air is removed from the vacuum vessel by drops of mercury falling through a capillary , trapping air in the process. The Sprengel pump was invented by the German physicist and chemist Hermann Sprengel in 1865 while working in London. The pump was able to generate the best vacuum available at the time.
functionality
Falling drops trap air bubbles and compress them to atmospheric pressure as they travel down the capillary. At the end of the capillary, the air is released into the atmosphere and the mercury drops fall into a collecting container. As the vacuum improves, the air bubbles between the mercury drops become increasingly smaller. The lack of padding can then cause a knocking noise during operation.
application
The simplicity and efficiency of the sprinkler pump quickly gained popularity among experimenters. With Sprengel's first model, a 500 ml vessel could be evacuated in about 20 minutes.
William Crookes used the pump in his work on electrical gas discharges , while Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison used the pump to evacuate carbon filament lamps . Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen used it to evacuate his cathode ray tube . It was only with the advent of the sprinkler pump that incandescent lamps could be made durable enough for commercial use by removing the atmosphere.
credentials
- ^ Journal - Chemical Society, London . Chemical Society., January 1, 1865 ( google.de [accessed February 12, 2017]).
- ↑ Classic Kit: Sprengel pump . In: Chemistry World . ( chemistryworld.com [accessed February 12, 2017]).