Mercury Barometer
date: label: date made
content: 1855
name: label: maker
content: Newman, John Frederick
notes: label: Description
content: In May 1855, the Smithsonian bought a “Standard Barometer” from John Frederick Newman for $129.42 (or, £20 plus packing). This is that instrument. Marked “I. Newman, 122 Regent Street, London,” it was designed to be portable and accurate. Rather than bringing the cistern up to a point attached to the bottom of the scale, Newman provided a mechanism for bringing the point down to touch the cistern. Newman barometers of this sort were sent to numerous observers throughout the British Empire.
label: Description
content: Ref.: John Newman, “On a New Method of Constructing a Portable Barometer,” <i>Report of the Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science</i> (1833): 417-418.
label: Description
content: J. Newman, <i>Instructions Necessary to be Attended to, in Using Newman's Standard or, Portable Mountain Barometer</i> (London, 1841).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Barometers
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.314941
label: accession number
content: 212909
label: catalog number
content: 314941
objectType: label: Object Name
content: barometer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 134 cm x 20 cm x 14 cm; 52 3/4 in x 7 7/8 in x 5 1/2 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 52 in x 7 5/8 in x 5 3/4 in; 132.08 cm x 19.3675 cm x 14.605 cm