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Introduction
This entry briefly outlines the developments that lead to the invention of the barometer and describes some of the numerous modifications for improved scale and portability before 1800.
Barometers: Early History and Development
The invention of the barometer during the seventeenth century is entangled with debates regarding the existence of a vacuum in Nature, and the curious phenomenon that prevented the pumping of liquid beyond 34 ft (10 m). Sometime between 1638 and 1643, Gasparo Berti (1600–1643) attempted to create an artificial vacuum after reading Galileo’s Discoursi. Berti filled a long tube with water, sealed it with a stopper, and inverted it over a basin. When he released the seal, the liquid only partially decanted: a column of water remained inside. Berti believed the evacuated space above the column was a vacuum. Some witnesses agreed; others claimed it was a bubble of ether (Middleton 1964).
In 1644, Evanglista Torricelli...
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References
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Ksiazkiewicz, A. (2020). Barometers: History and Development in Experimental Philosophy. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_50-1
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