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Barometer (detail)

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made in Edinburgh, sold in Greenock

Barometer (detail)
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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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