Barometer, made by Adie & Son

This stick barometer is of a type that became known as a 'cottage barometer'. It was made in Edinburgh by the firm Adie & Son around 1860. Although it is a conventional mercury in glass tube, it was made to appeal to a broader domestic market than hitherto.

This stick barometer is designed along lines of Georgian restraint, and has a simple rectangular shape, with an unfussy silvered register plate. The glass tube is held in a chamoix leather and boxwood cistern, hidden by the wooden cistern cover at the base.

Cottage barometers of this style were first marketed by Louis Casella, a London instrument maker, in 1857. They were deliberately designed as cheap, light and portable instruments for use in cottages, garden sheds, greenhouses and farm buildings. However, this particular example shows more care in construction than the basic Casella instrument, suggesting that Adie & Son were trying to popularise barometers with a public who previously would not have considered using them.

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