Physics of the Terrestrial Environment, Subtle Matter and Height of the Atmosphere: Conceptions of the Atmosphere and the Nature of Air in the Age of Enlightenment

The discovery, in the middle of the 17th century, of both the weight of air and the law governing its elasticity transformed the status of the atmosphere from that of a purely mathematical object to that of a complex and highly variable physical system.

In the context of rapidly intensifying experimentation and observation, the nature of the atmosphere was therefore the subject of a host of hypotheses, which 18th century scholars tried to reconcile with a coherent physical approach. In parti...