That kind of effect was studied and used in antiquity, as pneumatics. Aristotle's point of view did not hold sway everywhere or for all of that period; afaik pneumatics started with Empedocles and the clepsydra, and obviously the atomists favored the vacuum.

I've kept out of this conversation because I'm too ignorant, but it seems worth saying that while "it doesn't fit with Aristotle's scheme of the world" may be a good enough explanation for most premodern western thinking, it's hardly all of it.