Sprengel pump

[3] The pump created the highest vacuum achievable at that time, less than 1 μPa (approximately 1×10−11 atm).

[citation needed] Falling mercury drops compress the air to atmospheric pressure which is released when the stream reaches a container at the bottom of the tube.

[citation needed] The speed, simplicity and efficiency of the Sprengel pump made it a popular device with experimenters.

William Ramsay used them to isolate the noble gases, and Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison used them to evacuate their new carbon filament lamps.

[5] Sprengel himself moved on to investigating explosives and was eventually elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

A pump of this type is capable of producing high vacuum in which the pressure is 1 mPa. [ 1 ]