Talk:Sprengel pump

Operation
The article claims the pumps operated continuously and without supervision. This is contrary to Menlo Park Reminiscences by Francis Jehl, who operated them in Thomas Edison's lab in the 1870's and who wrote that it was a constant job to lift the mercury and refill the upper container. In Edison's light bulb factory a couple of years after the first practical bulb of Edison's was developed, pumps were used to recirculate the mercury in modified pumps. The Sprengel as shown required an attendant. Edison (talk) 16:35, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Plagiarism
This article ought to be rewritten as it is largely a word-for-word version of the copyrighted material at this site. See also the February, 2008 issue of Chemistry World. - Astrochemist (talk) 01:34, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Born
Sprengel was not Hanover-born but from Schillerslage near Hanover, now part of Burgdorf. --77.186.10.206 (talk) 23:43, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Demo video
I am not sure as to the policy for placing videos in the "Other reading" section, or if a new one should be made, but there is a video that has been made showing operation that I feel would be a valuable contribution] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viJ3T-1KZqY 98.3.19.137 (talk) 00:41, 2 May 2018 (UTC)


 * I agree that the video is worthwhile and have added it. It may be stretching "Other reading" but that seems better than having multiple, one-line sections. PeterJeremy (talk) 07:21, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

Vacuum
The article says "The pump created the highest vacuum achievable at that time, less than 1 mPa (approximately 1×10−8 atm)."

My math may be off, but "mPa" to me means "millipascal". 1x10^-8 atm would be one micropascal, right? "micro" would be indicated by the prefix "μ", not "m". Or, if it is 1 mPa, that would be 1x10^-5 atm.

The cited reference is not helpful here. 97.70.164.96 (talk) 03:48, 11 December 2022 (UTC)


 * The cited reference says it can pull a vacuum of "1oo,ooo,oooth of an atmosphere", which would work out to 1×10^−8 atm. I'll change it to less the a micropascal (μPa), which is 10−6. Unbeatable101 (talk) 16:09, 3 December 2023 (UTC)