The history of vacuum technology is a fascinating one. It seems to have begun in ancient Greece when the philosopher Democritus (circa 460 to 375 B.C.) proposed that the world was made up of tiny particles that he called atoms (atomos, Greek: undividable). Democritus’ belief was that empty space (in other words, in modern terminology, a vacuum) existed between the atoms, which moved according to the general laws of mechanics.