Robert Boyle invented a vacuum pump & discovered that this does not travel in a vacuum
In 1654 von Guericke invented a vacuum pump consisting of a 
piston and an... [DOC] [TLE] Robert Boyle Facts - Biography - YourDictionary [PAR] The British chemist, physicist, and natural philosopher Robert Boyle (1627-1691) 
... Having learned in 1657 of the vacuum pump recently invented by Otto von ... of 
basing scientific research on experiment, Boyle was not a simple empiricist.