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Barometer

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probably made in Edinburgh

Barometer
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This pocket-sized special barometer without mercury, also known as a sympiesometer, was made around 1850, probably by Alexander Adie & Son of Edinburgh. It was retailed in London by Adie's youngest son Patrick (1821-86).

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 brass scale of pressures slides against a fixed scale of temperatures.

Alexander Adie patented his design of a special barometer in 1818. It was more portable than a mercury barometer and could be used at sea or for measuring the height of mountains: air pressure decreases by height at a known constant.

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