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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• Online ID: 000-100-102-816-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1984.38
• Date: Around 1850
  c. 1850
  
• Material: Wooden case. Inscription: PATENT / Adie & Son / EDINBURGH / No 3262; ADIE / STRAND / LONDON
  Barometer / case
  
• Dimensions: 45 mm x 20 mm x 330 mm
  
• What: Barometer / case
  
• Subject: 10. METEOROLOGY (Departmental Classification)
  
• Who: Adie and Son (Inscribed on the barometer)
  Alexander Adie and Son, Edinburgh (Maker)
  Patrick Adie, Strand, London (Retailer)
  
• Where: England, London
  England, London (Strand)
  Scotland, Midlothian, Edinburgh
  Scotland, Midlothian, Edinburgh
  Scotland, Midlothian, Edinburgh
  
• Event:
• Description: Barometer consisting of a pocket sized sympiesometer with a mercury thermometer, contained in a wooden carrying case, probably by Alexander Adie and Son, Edinburgh, c. 1850
  
• References:
  • Clarke, T.N., Morrison-Low, A.D. & Simpson, A.D.C. Brass & glass scientific instrument making workshops in Scotland as illustrated by instruments from the Arthur Frank Collection at the Royal Museum of Scotland. Edinburgh: NMS, 1989. p 37, 58 
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