Porta's Apparatus, 1609
In 1609, the Italian Giambattista della Porta succeeded in showing that water can be raised with fire. He filled a retort (a vessel that has a wide bottom that leads into a thin pipe) with water and put it over a fire. He then put the pipe into a air-tight vessel filled with water. When the water in the retort began to vaporize an excess pressure took place in the vessel above it. Porta put another pipe into it, so that the water could be pressed out of the vessel. Giambattista della Porta (1535 - February 4, 1615) was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation. He spent the majority of his life on scientific endeavors. His most famous work, first published in 1558, was entitled Magiae Naturalis (Natural Magic). In this book he covered a variety of the subjects he had investigated, including the study of: occult philosophy, astrology, alchemy, mathematics, meteorology, and natural philosophy.
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