Torricelli, Evangelista[torichelee](1608--47) Physicist and mathematician, born in Faenza, Italy. He went in 1627 to Rome, where he devoted himself to mathematics, became Galileo's amanuensis (1641), and succeeded him as professor at the Florentine Academy. He discovered the effect of atmospheric pressure on water in a suction pump, and gave the first description of a barometer, or Torricellian tube (1643). |