Left: a 1663 design vacuum bulb (top part) and vacuum pump (bottom part), the third design of the vacuum pump by German engineer Otto Guericke. Right: a small boy (left) holding a vacuum bulb in circa 1670 "lifting device" Guericke engine experiment where, when connects the bulb to connector x and then turns the stopcöck, releasing the power of the vacuum, at which point the piston is pushed down and the men jerked forward.

“Guericke had designed his first air pump on the basis of a fire syringe: a piston moving back and forth in a brass cylinder. During the outward motion, it took in air from a spherical recipient. The pump was emptied during the inward stroke, while a leather valve prevented the air from flowing back to the recipient. The outlet was supplied with a valve as well, to prevent the atmospheric air from being taken in during the suction stroke. Hooke and Huygens improved on this design, but the overall idea remained the same. Leakage was the largest problem with the earliest vacuum pumps. To reduce it, the pump cylinder had to be perfectly straight with a smooth inner surface. Requirements like this made the construction of a vacuum pump extremely expensive and difficult. No more than fifteen scholars and institutions succeeded in obtaining a vacuum pump before 1670, and most of these depended on Guericke, Hooke, or Huygens for the construction and maintenance of their instruments.”

— Anne Helden (2003), “Air Pump”, in: Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution [1]