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 New Mono Headset for tube radio Zenith Trans Oceanic  US $29.95
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 Vintage Zenith Trans Oceanic Short Wave Standard Broadcast Portable Radio US $200.00
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 Vintage Zenith Trans Oceanic Tube Type Radio WORKS w Manual US $79.95
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 Zenith Trans Oceanic Multiband Radio Royal 3000 1 US $35.56
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 2 different 1956 ZENITH TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE RADIO Print Ads US $9.99
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 ANTIQUE ZENITH RADIO TRANS OCEANIC RADIO ROYAL 1000 D US $75.00
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 Zenith Royal 3000 1 Trans Oceanic AM FM Transistor Radio for parts or repair US $9.95
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 Vintage Early 1950s Zenith H500 Super Trans Oceanic Tube Portable Radio US $99.99
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 Vintage NOS New Vacuum Tubes1L6Zenith Transoceanic Trans Oceanic Radio US $21.61
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 Vintage Zenith Trans Oceanic Royal 1000 Transistor Radio 8 Band AM FM SW Inop US $4.99
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 Vintage Zenith Trans Oceanic Radio Shortwave Royal 3000 1 US $36.00
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 ZENITH TRANS OCEANIC TRANSOCEANIC RADIO OWNER LABEL TAG US $2.00
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 Tube Type Zenith Radio and Trans Oceanic Tube Set 1L6 1U4 3V4 50A1 US $50.00
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 Book The Zenith Trans Oceanic The Royalty of Radios Published in 1995 US $19.95
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 Zenith Sailboat grille for 1st Trans Oceanic and Universal portable radios US $9.95
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 Portable Zenith Trans Oceanic Clipper Radio Model 8G005TZIY US $99.99
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 1952 Zenith Trans Oceanic Collectible Vintage Radio Ad US $9.99
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 Zenith Trans Oceanic Radio with instructions and Log RARE US $99.99
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 1949 ZENITH Trans Oceanic Portable RADIO AD w Universal US $10.99
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 1953 Print Ad Zenith Tran Oceanic Radio Globe Radio US $5.99
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 ORIGINAL PRINT AD 1953 ZENITH SUPER TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE RADIO US $9.99
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 Vintage 1959 Zenith Trans Oceanic Radio Ad Nat Geo US $5.50
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 1955 ZENITH RADIO TRANS OCEANIC PRINT SPANISH AD US $5.50
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 1968 ZENITH 9 BAND TRANS OCEANIC RADIO SALES ADPOWERED TO TUNE IN THE WORLD US $7.00
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 1954 AD VINTAGE 50s ERA ZENITH DELUXE TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE SHORTWAVE RADIO US $5.00
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 1946 Ad Zenith Trans Oceanic Clipper Radio Model 8Goo5Y ORIGINAL ADVERTISING US $23.95
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 1959 ZENITH Trans Oceanic Royal 1000 8 Band RADIO AD US $10.99
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 1959 ZENITH Radio Ad trans oceanic more 2 pg US $9.99
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 1957 Zenith Radio Ad All Transistor Tubeless Trans Oceanic Short Wave US $5.00
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 Vintage 1950s Original Zenith Trans Oceanic Leather Surface Black Tube Radio US $119.00
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 Motorola Portable Radio 1948 Vintage Ad Zenette Trans Oceanic US $6.99
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 1947 Zenith Trans Oceanic Portable Radio Ad Where Ordinary Radios Fail US $5.00
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 1947 Zenith Table Radio Phono Zenette Trans Oceanic Radio Ad Play Santa Claus US $5.00
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 1957 Zenith Trans Oceanic Portable Radio Print Ad US $12.99
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 1952 Zenith Super Trans Oceanic Portable Radio Print Ad US $12.99
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 1950 ZENITH PORTABLE RADIOS 4 Models TRANS OCEANIC UNIVERSAL PRINT AD US $9.95
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 1956 AD VINTAGE 50s ERA ZENITH TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE SHORT WAVE RADIO YEAGLEY US $5.00
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 1956 AD VINTAGE 50s ERA ZENITH TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE RADIO YACHT CONSTELLATION US $5.00
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 ZENITH RADIO AD TRANSISTOR TRANS OCEANIC RADIO RETRO MAGAZINE AD 1958WALL ART US $7.99
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 1959 Zenith Tans Oceanic Radio photo print ad US $8.45
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 1958 ZENITH AD TRANS OCEANIC SHORT WAVE RADIO US $8.45
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 1958 ZENITH TRANS OCEANIC RADIO AD ROYAL 1000 D US $9.99
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 Vintage Collectors Zenith Trans Oceanic H 500 Complete Original Tube Radio US $85.00
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 1951 ZENEITH RADIO AD SUPER TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE US $8.45
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 1951 NO OTHER RADIO LIKE THIS IN THE WORLD ZENITH SUPER TRANS OCEANIC ART AD US $7.00
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 1958 ZENITH AD TRANS OCEANIC RADIO TUNE IN THE WORLD US $8.45
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 1947 Zenith Radio Ad Trans Oceanic Universal Portable US $4.50
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 Vintage 1967 ZENITH Portable RADIO PRINT AD Super Navigator 9 Band Trans oceanic US $8.99
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 1950 ZENITH RADIO PHONOGRAPH TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE Vintage Print Ad US $9.99
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 Vintage Working Zenith Trans Oceanic Standard Short Wave Portable Radio US $325.00
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 Lot of 3 Half page Zenith Trans Oceanic Radio Ads 1966 1969 US $4.19
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 1947 Advertisement ZENITH Trans Oceanic Shortwave Portable Radio Model 8G005Y US $4.29
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 1950 Advertisement Zenith Trans OceanicUniversal Radio US $3.89
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 1950 Advertisement Zenith Record Player AM FM Trans Oceanic Portable Radio US $3.99
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 VTG Zenith Trans Oceanic Royal 1000 Transistor Radio US $299.99
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 1947 zenith ad shows a trans oceanic portable radio US $5.00
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 1956 Zenith Trans Oceanic Radio Constellation Yacht Ad US $11.30
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 1952 Zenith Super Trans Oceanic Radio Vintage Ad US $12.49
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 1957 Zenith Trans Oceanic Royal 500 Radio Print Ad US $11.30
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 1951 ZENITH RADIO AD TRANS OCEANIC UNIVERSAL PORTABLE US $8.45
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 1947 ZENITH AD TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE RADIO DATED US $8.45
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 1947 ZENITH AD TRANS OCEANIC UNIVERSAL PORTABLE RADIO US $8.45
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 1955 Zenith ad Zenith Trans Oceanic shortwave radio US $5.99
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 Vintage 1952 Advertisement ZENITH Trans Oceanic RADIO US $8.10
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 1958 Zenith All Transistor Trans Oceanic Shortwave Portable Radio Ad US $7.00
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 1957 Zenith Trans Oceanic Radio RARE Ad World Premiere US $9.99
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 1951 Zenith Super Trans Oceanic Radio Ad Amazing 4 Way Reception US $6.00
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 1969 Zenith Trans Oceanic Radio ad Royal 7000Y US $5.49
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 1968 Zenith Trans Oceanic Radio ad 50th anniv US $5.49
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 1960 Zenith ad Zenith Trans Oceanic shortwave radio US $6.89
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 1940S RCA OCEANIC SHORTWAVE AM FM RADIO WORKS GREAT US $600.00
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 1951 Zenith Tip Top Holiday Trans Oceanic radio ad US $9.94
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 1959 WORLDS MOST MAGNIFICENT RADIO AND GIFT ZENITH TRANS OCEANIC SALES ART AD US $5.95
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 1953 Antique Zenith Super Trans Oceanic Radio Ad US $.99
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 1951 Zenith Super Trans Oceanic Portable Radio Print Ad US $12.99
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 1956 Zenith Trans Oceanic Short Wave Radio Sailboat Ad US $5.00
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 Schooner Constellation Zenith Trans Oceanic Radio Ad US $9.95
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 1956 Zenith ad Zenith Trans Oceanic shortwave radio US $6.99
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 1955 Zenith Trans Oceanic portable shortwave radio Ad Dial O Map US $8.79
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 1955 ZENITH Trans Oceanic DIAL O MAP Radio AD 50s print US $6.78
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 1959 Zenith All Transistor Trans Oceanic Radio Ad US $4.95
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 1958 Zenith Radio Tubeless Trans Oceanic Ad US $4.95
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 1958 Zenith All Transistor Trans Oceanic Radio Ad US $4.95
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 1948 Zenith Radio Ad Trans Oceanic Zenette Universal US $4.95
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 ZENITH ALL TRANSISTOR TRANS OCEANIC ROYAL 1000D RADIO US $49.95
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 1948 ZENITH PORTABLE RADIOS Vintage Print Ad TRANS OCEANIC ZENETTE UNIVERSAL US $9.99
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 1953 Zenith TV Radio Phono for Christmas Ad trans oceanic more US $8.79
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 Sony Earth Orbiter CRF 5100 Ten band transistor radio trans oceanic AM FM SW VHF US $416.88
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 Vintage Collectible Magazine Ad 1947 ZENITH TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE RADIO US $8.98
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 Zenith Trans Oceanic Beautiful 1950s Vintage Table Top Radio Mint US $297.06
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 1957 ZENITH Trans Oceanic Portable Short Wave RADIO AD US $6.99
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 1947 ORIGINAL AD ZENITH TRANS OCEANIC PORTABLE RADIO US $6.00
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 1947 Zenith Trans Oceanic Portable Radio Beach Magazine Print Advertisement Page US $6.00
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 1958 Zenith Transister Radio Ad Trans Oceanic 5 more US $8.49
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 1952 ZENITH Super Trans Oceanic Portable RADIO Print AD US $8.79
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 1958 ZENITH AD TRANS OCEANIC SHORT WAVEPORTABLE RADIO US $8.46
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 1957 ZENITH AD ROYAL 500 TRANS OCEANIC RADIOS US $8.46
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 Zenith Super Trans Oceanic 7 Band Radio Model H500 US $140.00
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An Ocean of Air
Nearly four hundred years ago, in a patchwork of individual fiefdoms that we now call Italy, a revolution of ideas was struggling to take place. The traditional way to understand the workings of the world -- through a combination of divine revelation and abstract reasoning -- had begun to come under attack from a new breed. These people called themselves “natural philosophers,” because the word “scientist” had not yet been invented. To find out the way the world worked, they didn’t sit around and talk about it. They went out and looked. This was not an approach that was likely to find favor with the Church, home of received wisdom, or with its instruments -- the whispering Inquisitors, with their hotline back to Rome. Now, a certain natural philosopher had fallen very foul of those Inquisitors and been forced to stop his investigations into the structure of the heavens. His name was Galileo Galilei, and our story begins with him.
Convent of Minerva, Rome
June 22, 1633
I, Galileo Galilei, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei, Florentine, aged seventy years, arraigned personally before this tribunal, and kneeling before you, most Eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinals, Inquisitors general against heretical depravity throughout the whole Christian Republic . . . have been pronounced by the Holy Office to be vehemently suspected of heresy, that is to say, of having held and believed that the sun is the center of the world and immovable, and that the earth is not the center and moves:
Therefore, desiring to remove from the minds of your Eminences, and of all faithful Christians, this strong suspicion, reasonably conceived against me, with sincere heart and unfeigned faith I abjure, curse, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies . . . and I swear that in the future I will never again say or assert, verbally or in writing, anything that might furnish occasion for a similar suspicion regarding me.
As the great Galileo rose from his knees at the end of this infamous, and forced, recantation, he is said to have muttered “Eppur si muove!” (“And yet it moves!”). He knew in his heart that Earth moves around the sun, in spite of what the Inquisitors had made him say. Still, devoutly religious as he was, he had no taste for defying his own church. Nor had he any desire to share the fate of the unfortunate monk Giordano Bruno, who a few decades earlier had been publicly burned for holding similar views. Galileo may have been the most famous philosopher in all Italy, but he knew that in itself wouldn’t save him from the fire.
And though he was now seventy years old, frail, and steadily losing his sight, he was not yet ready to die. He had damaged his eyes by staring through a telescope at wonders he himself had discovered: blemishes that appeared periodically on the surface of the sun; craters on the moon; distant but distinct moons circling the planet Jupiter (who would have thought that other planets could have moons of their own?), and stars that nobody knew existed. Now, before the cataracts and glaucoma finally clouded his sight, in secret, if necessary, he had one last task to complete. Galileo had seen this “trial” coming; he’d known for some time that he couldn’t continue his study of the heavens. So for some years he had been discreetly changing tack, turning his attention inwards to Earth itself. And, failing eyesight notwithstanding, he was about to change the way we see the most apparently ordinary substance in the world: air.
The Inquisitors knew nothing of this. They were satisfied with his recantation, and decided, graciously, to spare his life. He would be allowed to return to his villa at Arcetri in Florence, though he should understand that he was still considered dangerous and would therefore be held under house arrest. There would be no visitors, save those given prior permission by the Church. Meanwhile, Galileo himself was to spend his time reciting the holy psalms as penance, and praying for his immortal soul.
Galileo returned to his villa as instructed and performed his penance diligently. But the Inquisitors had also obliged him to swear never again to publish work that might offend the Holy Office, and he had no intention of complying. For with him to Arcetri he had taken a certain manuscript that was already nearly finished.
He had started the experiments it described while awaiting his summons to Rome. Having turned away from his telescope, Galileo had become fascinated instead by the different ways that objects move through the air. The result was to become his masterpiece. The manuscript already recounted findings that would become just as famous as the moons of Jupiter. For instance, Galileo had made the surprising discovery that Earth’s gravity doesn’t care in the least how much something weighs. Drop a cannonball and a pebble from a high tower, and both will reach the ground at exactly the same moment.
But within its pages was another discovery that would prove to be less famous yet no less significant. Galileo had measured the weight of air.
This might seem like a bizarre notion. How can something so insubstantial as the air weigh anything at all? In fact our planet’s air is constantly pushing down on us with great force. We don’t notice this because we’re used to it, like lobsters sauntering along on the seafloor, unaware of the crushing weight of the ocean of water above them. We give our own overlying air-ocean so little respect that we even describe anything that’s full of air as being “empty.”
Back in Galileo’s time, notions about air were similarly hazy. Most people accepted the idea put forward by Aristotle in the fourth century b.c. that everything in the world was made up of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Earth and water were obviously pulled downward by gravity. Fire was obviously weightless. But air was the problem child. Was it heavy enough to be dragged to the ground, light enough to rise like flames do, or did it simply ignore Earth’s gravitational tug and hover?
Galileo believed that air is heavy and had set about testing his idea. The experiments he performed were typically ingenious. First, he took a large glass bottle with a narrow neck and a tight leather stopper. Into this stopper he inserted a syringe attached to a bellows and by working vigorously managed to squeeze two or three times more air into the bottle than it had previously contained. Next, he weighed the glass bottle most precisely, adding and subtracting the finest of sand to his scales until he was satisfied with the answer. Then, he opened a valve in the lid. Immediately, the compressed air rushed out of its confinement, and the bottle was suddenly a handful of grains lighter. The air that had escaped must account for the missing weight.
This showed that air is not the insubstantial body we usually take it for. But now Galileo wanted to know how much air corresponded to how many grains of sand. For that he would somehow need to measure both the weight of the escaping air and its volume.
This time, he took the same glass bottle with its long, narrow neck. However, instead of pumping it full of extra air, he forced in some water. When the bottle was three-quarters full of water, its original air was squeezed uncomfortably into a quarter of its original space. Galileo weighed the bottle accurately, opened the valve, allowed this pressurized air to escape, and then weighed the bottle again to find out how much air he had lost. As for the volume, Galileo reasoned that the portion of air that had been forced to leave the bottle had been pushed aside by the water he had squeezed in, so the volume of air that had fled must be exactly the same as the volume of water that remained. All he had to do was pour out the water and measure its volume and voilà, he had found the weight for a given volume of air.
The value Galileo came up with was surprisingly large: Air seemed to weigh as much as one four-hundredth the weight of an equivalent amount of water. If that doesn’t sound like much, consider this. Picture a particular volume of air for a moment -- such as the “empty” space inside Carnegie Hall in New York. How heavy would you expect that amount of air to be? Would it weigh ten pounds? Or a hundred? Or maybe even five hundred?
The answer is somewhere in the region of seventy thousand pounds.
The weight of air is so extreme that even Galileo didn’t see the whole story. He never considered the question of how we can shoulder such a crushing, overwhelming burden, for the simple reason that he didn’t realize the air above us is still heavy. He had measured the weight of air in his bottle, but he was convinced that the moment this air was released back into its natural element, the sky, it immediately ceased to weigh anything at all.
Galileo believed that our atmosphere as a whole is incapable of pushing. It was one of the few occasions when the great man was wrong.
In spite of the Church’s opposition Galileo finished his manuscript -- and published it. After fruitless efforts to convince publishers in Florence, Rome, and Venice to defy the Inquisitors, Galileo finally smuggled the manuscript out to a printer in the Netherlands. Four years later, as he approached the end of his life, a few copies began filtering back to Italy. Each bore a disingenuous disclaimer by Galileo himself, who wrote how astonished he was that his words had somehow found their way to a printer’s in spite of his obedience to the Papal diktat.
And although Galileo was wrong about the way our air behaves aloft, the experiments his great work contained would influence two very different people to discover the truth.
The above is an excerpt from the book An Ocean of Air
by Gabrielle Walker
Published by Harcourt, Inc.; August 2007;$25.00US; 978-0-15-101124-7
Copyright © 2007 Gabrielle Walker
Author
Gabrielle Walker is an award-winning science writer who has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Cambridge and has presented many programs for BBC radio. She has served as a climate-change editor at Nature, features editor at New Scientist, and visiting professor at Princeton University. She lives in London.
About the Author
For more information, please visit www.GabrielleWalker.com.