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1. Notice respecting Father Secchi's Statical Barometer, and on the Origin of the Cathetometer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2015

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Extract

A friend, who returned lately from Rome, has sent me some copies of a pamphlet by Father Secchi of the Collegio Romano, one of which I lay on the table of the Society.

It describes a barometer stated to be on a new construction. The barometric tube is suspended from one arm of a balance, and counterpoised. It is filled with mercury in the usual way; but the cistern into which it opens is fixed apart, and does not move with the beam of the balance. It is evident, therefore, that the varying pressure of the air on the exterior of the tube will require a changing counterpoise, and that the magnitude of the change may be increased by enlarging the section of the tube, so that the alteration of pressure may be indicated with any required delicacy.

Type
Proceedings 1856-57
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 3 , 1857 , pp. 480 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1857

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References

page no 482 note * Since this paper was read, I have been enabled to carry back the history of the Balance Barometer, or at least of the experiment described by Desaguliers, considerably farther. In Cotes's Lectures on Hydrostatics, &c., published by Smith in 1747 (but which were delivered more than forty years previously), the experiment is fully detailed and explained. It is also ascribed to Wallis, as well as an ingenious modification of it well adapted for the lecture table.