Vacuum pump
Overview
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
. The first vacuum pump was invented in 1650 by Otto von Guericke
Otto von Guericke
Otto von Guericke was a German scientist, inventor, and politician...
.
Pumps can be broadly categorized according to three techniques:
- Positive displacement pumps use a mechanism to repeatedly expand a cavity, allow gases to flow in from the chamber, seal off the cavity, and exhaust it to the atmosphere.
- Momentum transfer pumps, also called molecular pumps, use high speed jets of dense fluid or high speed rotating blades to knock gas molecules out of the chamber.
- Entrapment pumps capture gases in a solid or adsorbed state.
Unanswered Questions
