[AIR- 7.] A machine for exhausting the air out of a vessel by means of the strokes of a piston. (Formerly called Pneumatic Engine and Wind Pump.)
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., i. (1682), 4. I put Mr. G. and R. Hook to contrive some Air-pump that might not like the other need to be kept under water.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., II. 121. That excellent Tractate of Experiments of Esq. Boyle’s, with his Pneumatical Engin or Ayr-pump.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., viii. 284. Exhausted Receivers of Air-pumps.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 21, ¶ 7. For want of other Patients [they] amuse themselves with the stifling of Cats in an Air-Pump.
1728. Young, Love of Fame, V. (1757), 126. Like cats in air-pumps, to subsist we strive On joys too thin to keep the soul alive.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 26. Otto de Guericke of Magdeburgh invented the air-pump.
