For centuries the possiblity of a vacuum was disputed on philosophical grounds: ‘much ado about nothing ‘. This controversy was given a completly new twist about 1650 by the contruction of the first primitive air-pumps. The existence of a vacuum could now be demonstrated experimentally and its properties researched into. Practically-minded scientists like Huygens and Robert Boyle were soon able to improve the airpump, and the Leiden professors too made their contribution.
