the.com/barometer
a tube of trapped weather that smelled the future before satellites stole its job
means An instrument that measures atmospheric pressure, used to forecast changes in the weather and to estimate altitude.
from Coined in the 17th century from Greek 'baros' (weight) plus '-meter' (measure) — literally a weight-measurer, because that's exactly what it does: weigh the air pressing down on us. The Italian Evangelista Torricelli built the first one in the 1640s, inverting a tube of mercury and watching the column rise and fall with the moods of the sky. 'Baros' is a distant relative of words for heaviness and gravity; the same root sits inside 'barometric' and the medical 'baric.'
- invention
- Torricelli built the first one in 1643
- original fluid
- mercury, because water versions stood 10 meters tall
- storm warning
- falling pressure means rain is coming
- altitude trick
- pressure drops predictably as you climb higher
- unit honor
- the millibar literally names this instrument
torricelli barometer — mercury column invented by evangelista torricelli in 1643, measures atmospheric pressure at sea level as 760 mm
aneroid barometer — spring-based barometer without liquid, invented by lucien vidie in 1844, used in most modern household devices