Vacuum engineering
Vacuum technology is a method used to evacuate air from a closed volume by creating a pressure differential from the closed volume to some vent, the ultimate vent being the open atmosphere. When using an industrial vacuum system, a vacuum pump or generator creates this pressure differential. A variety of technical inventions were created based on the idea of vacuum discovered during the 17th century. These range from vacuum generation pumps to X-ray tubes, which were later introduced to the medical field for use as sources of X-ray radiation. The vacuum environment has come to play an important role in scientific research as new discoveries are being made by looking back to the basic fundamentals of pressure. The idea of “perfect vacuum” cannot be realized, but very nearly approximated by the technological discoveries of the early 20th century. Vacuum engineering today uses a range of different material, from aluminum to zirconium and just about everything in between. There may be the popular belief that vacuum technology deals only with valves, flanges, and other vacuum components, but novel scientific discoveries are often made with the assistance of these traditional vacuum technologies, especially in the realm of high-tech. Vacuum engineering is used for compound semiconductors, power devices, memory logic, and photovoltaics.
Vacuum airship
From 1886 to 1900 Arthur De Bausset attempted in vain to raise funds to construct his "vacuum-tube" airship design, but despite early support in the United States Congress, the general public was skeptical. Illinois historian Howard Scamehorn reported that Octave Chanute and Albert Francis Zahm "publicly denounced and mathematically proved the fallacy of the vacuum principle", however the author does not give his source. De Bausset published a book on his design and offered $150,000 stock in the Transcontinental Aerial Navigation Company of Chicago. His patent application was eventually denied on the basis that it was "wholly theoretical, everything being based upon calculation and nothing upon trial or demonstration."