'Blaise Pascal, (1933). Portrait of French philosopher, mathematician, physicist and theologian Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). Credited with founding the modern theory of probability, Pascal also discovered the properties of the cycloid and contributed to the advance of differential calculus. As a physicist, his attempts to discredit the notion that 'nature abhors a vacuum' led to the inventions of the barometer, hydraulic press and syringe. The SI unit of pressure, the pascal, and a computer programming language were named after him. After a miniature by Paul Prieur. After a miniature by Paul Prieur, From "Gestalten Der Weltgeschichte", a book of cigarette-card portrait miniatures of figures in world history from the last four hundred years. [Germany, 1933]