Le ipotesi sulla natura dell’aria e il vuoto torricelliano alla Royal Society

By the end of 1661, while he was carrying out the Torricellian experiment in his new-built air-pump, Christiaan Huygens stumbled across a strange phenomenon, which was to be labelled as “anomalous suspension” and was perceived as a serious threat to the to the theory of atmospheric pressure developed by Torricelli, Pascal and Boyle. My paper will focus on barometric experiments carried out at the Royal Society between 1662 and 1664. Huygens’ experiment came to assume an important role in the Society’s programme of barometric experimentation. By providing a brief outline of the responses prompted by the anomalous suspension among the English scientists, I will try to show how their interpretations of the phenomenon indicated different positions on crucial issues, such as the theory of matter, the origin of motion and the composition of the atmosphere.