Torricelli, Evangelista

Torricelli, Evangelista, 1608-47, Italian physicist and mathematician. He was Galileo's secretary (1641-42) and his successor as professor of philosophy and mathematics at Florence. He invented the barometer (1643), called the Torricelli tube, and a microscope, and he improved the telescope.

(born Oct. 15, 1608, Faenza, Romagna—died Oct. 25, 1647, Florence) Italian physicist and mathematician, inventor of the barometer. He served as secretary to Galileo during the last three months of the latter's life and was appointed to succeed him at the Florentine Academy. Two years later, pursuing a suggestion by Galileo, he filled a glass tube 4 ft (1.2 m) long with mercury and inverted the tube into a dish. He observed that some of the mercury did not flow out and that the space above the mercury in the tube was a vacuum. After much observation, he concluded that the variation of the height of the mercury from day to day was caused by changes in atmospheric pressure. He never published his findings. His work in geometry aided in the eventual development of integral calculus.

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Torricelli may refer to:

People

• Evangelista Torricelli, an Italian physicist
• Robert Torricelli, a former United States politician
• Moreno Torricelli, a former Italian football player
• Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli, an Italian sculptor

Other

• Torricelli languages, a subgroup of the Papuan languages
• Torricelli Mountains, a mountain range in Papua New Guinea
• Torricelli (crater), a lunar crater in the Sinus Asperitatis

Italian Submarines

Several Italian Navy submarines were named after Evangelista Torricelli

• An Archimede class submarine -1934, transferred to Spain in 1937
• A Brin class submarine - 1937 sunk in the Red Sea by the British Navy in 1940
• The former USS Lizardfish (SS-373) - transfered in 1960 and decommisssioned in 1976