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Barometer (detail)

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made in Edinburgh, sold in Greenock

Postcard of Barometer (detail).
000-180-000-972-C
© National Museums Scotland

Barometer (detail)

This photograph shows a detail of the signature on a barometer made in Edinburgh, but sold in Greenock around 1820. The signature is engraved on the brass plate towards the bottom of the instrument: 'PATENT / A. Adie / Edinburgh / No 383 / Wm. Heron / Agent / Greenock'.

Alexander Adie (1775-1858) of Edinburgh patented his form of the air barometer in 1818. This does not use mercury, which had proved one of the problems of using the instrument at sea, where the motion of the ship often caused the mercury to smash the instrument's glass tube.

William Heron was a lecturer in natural philosophy (physics) at the Greenock Institution of Arts and Sciences, during the 1820s and was, on the evidence of this instrument, himself involved in instrument retailing. He is very likely to have been a relation of David Heron, whose instrument-making business moved from Greenock to Glasgow in 1834.


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Online ID: 000-180-000-972-C
Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
Project: 0504: National Museums Scotland Part 2
Project description | View all records in project
Ref: National Museums Scotland  
Date: Around 1820
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References:
  • For Adie and the sympiesometer see Clarke, T.N., A.D. Morrison-Low and A.D.C. Simpson. Brass & Glass: Scientific Instrument Making Workshops in Scotland. Edinburgh, 1989, pp 35-37. 
  • For Heron, see Clarke, T.N., A.D. Morrison-Low and A.D.C. Simpson. Brass & Glass: Scientific Instrument Making Workshops in Scotland. Edinburgh, 1989, pp 37, 281. 
  • For the sympiesometer, see Middleton, W.E.K. History of the Barometer. Baltimore, 1964, pp 378-80. 
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