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Barometer

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made in Edinburgh

Postcard of Barometer.
000-100-102-712-C
© National Museums Scotland

Barometer

This special barometer without mercury, also known as a sympiesometer, was made around 1825, probably by Alexander Adie (1775-1858), a scientific instrument maker based in Edinburgh. Adie had patented his design in 1818.

Adie's sympiesometer is a glass tube filled with coloured almond oil with a gas bulb filled with hydrogen at the top. A thermometer registers the temperature and the sliding silvered brass scale of pressures slides against a fixed scale of temperatures.

The sympiesometer was developed especially for use at sea, where the motion of the waves causes mercury in an ordinary barometer to behave like a hammer, shattering the glass tube container.


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Online ID: 000-100-102-712-C
Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
Project: 0098: National Museums Scotland
Project description | View all records in project
Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1967.99
Date: Around 1825
c. 1825
Material: Glass fronted wooden case, silvered face, purple fluid in glass tube, mercury in glass thermometer. Inscription: PATENT / A. ADIE / EDINBURGH / No. 579 // Spencer Browning / & Rust / Agents / London //; Capt Robertson / Monarch // Capt A. Paterson's / Shi
Dimensions: 24.50" H
What: Sympiesometer
Subject: 10. METEOROLOGY (Departmental Classification)
Who: A. Adie, Edinburgh (Maker)
Captain A. Paterson (Inscribed on the Sympiesometer)
Robertson (Inscribed on the Sympiesometer)
Spencer, Browning & Rust (Inscribed on the Sympiesometer)
Where: China
Scotland, Midlothian, Edinburgh
Event:
Description: Sympiesometer for meteorology, patented in 1818, by Alexander Adie, Edinburgh, c. 1825
References:
  • Adie, Alexander 'Description of the Patent Sympiesometer or New Air Barometer'. Edinburgh Philosophical Journal 1. 1819 pp 54-60 
  • Middleton, W E Knowles. The History of the Barometer. Baltimore, 1964. pp 378-81 
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