Abstract
A PORTABLE barometer made by the well-known clockmaker Daniel Quare (1649-1724) has been lent by Mr. K. Meyrick, of Corbridge-on-Tyne, to the Science Museum, South Kensington. The barometer is an early domestic form of the instrument, in which the tube and cistern are enclosed in a fluted walnut case carried on four metal feet. Thus the instrument can stand on a table, though a ring is also provided for hanging it against a wall. This barometer was the first designed for portability, having been made by Daniel Quare to his own patent specification of 1695. It uses a cistern with a flexible leather bottom which can be compressed by means of a screw so as to fill the barometer tube with mercury and thus avoid the risk of damage when the barometer is moved. To reduce this risk still further, there is a constriction near the top of the tube, to retard the flow of the mercury and thereby reduce the impact of the column on the upper, closed end of the tube. The instrument has a weather scale very similar to that still used on domestic barometers.
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Portable Barometer. Nature 162, 919 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162919c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162919c0