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Auction archive: Lot number 31

A very rare Victorian rosewood mercury ‘Patent Compensating Portable Barometer’ …

Auction 28.08.2014
28 Aug 2014
Estimate
£1,000 - £2,000
ca. US$1,670 - US$3,340
Price realised:
£800
ca. US$1,336
Auction archive: Lot number 31

A very rare Victorian rosewood mercury ‘Patent Compensating Portable Barometer’ …

Auction 28.08.2014
28 Aug 2014
Estimate
£1,000 - £2,000
ca. US$1,670 - US$3,340
Price realised:
£800
ca. US$1,336
Beschreibung:

A very rare Victorian rosewood mercury 'Patent Compensating Portable Barometer' or mercury sympiesometer William Harris and Son, London, mid 19th century The rectangular silvered scale applied with short U-shaped mercury tube terminating with open bulb to left hand column opposing sealed bulb to the right, the centre with mercury tube Fahrenheit and Reaumer scale thermometer and with engraved inscription Harris's Patent Compensating Portable Barometer, the upper margin signed WILL.'M HARRIS & SON, 50 High Holborn, London, above right hand side with engraved vertical scale for degrees Fahrenheit ranging between 20 and 120 set behind slide with compressed vernier scale annotated for barometric inches and with the usual weather observations, the upper edge of the slide fitted with angled steel pointer for calibration against the temperature scale behind and with adjustment by rack and pinion to a knurled brass knob fitted to the right hand side of the case, the vernier with independent adjustment via friction slide to a smaller secondary brass knob to the exterior, the lower edge with engraved serial number 284 over recessed circular level recording disc engraved with barometric scale visible through a semi-circular aperture in the plate and manually adjusted via projecting rim to the base, the case with shaped upstand to the cavetto moulded cornice above moulded surround to the glazed front aperture, 33cm (13ins) high. Many makers with the surname Harris have worked in the London instrument trade since the middle of the 17th century, however this branch of the family can be traced back to Richard Harris who is recorded in Clifton, Gloria Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851 as working from several addresses in London circa 1710-1810. His son, William, was apprenticed to the clockmaker Joseph Robinson and gained his freedom of the Clockmaker's Company in 1796. William set up business first at 47 High Holborn, London in 1805 before moving to a couple of doors down to number 50 in 1815. The business became 'William Harris & Company' in around 1813 before being renamed 'William Harris & Son' in 1841 when William Harris is believed to have taken in his son, Richard Joshua, into partnership. The business is recorded working from 50 High Holborn until around 1855. The design of current lot was described in the 1851 publication by Adolphus Oliver Harris A Treatise on the Patent Compensation Portable Barometer and was developed by William Harris and Son as an improvement on the sympiesometer invented by Alexander Adie of Edinburgh in 1818 (which in turn was essentially an improved version of Robert Hooke's thermobarometer which was subject of a paper presented to the Royal Society in 1668). Both instruments essentially work in the same way with a syphon tube filled with liquid open to the air at one end and with trapped gas at the other (sulphuric acid and hydrogen were used in the sympiesometer). As barometric pressure increases the liquid will be forced down the tube causing the gas to be compressed, resulting in a change in level in the tube. Unfortunately the volume of the gas changes with temperature so before a reliable reading can be taken the instrument would first need to be calibrated by adjusting the position of the movable barometer scale in relation to the temperature scale behind to reflect the reading provided by the thermometer. The sympiesometer was conceived as an alternative to the mercury marine barometer as it was smaller and less susceptible to the motion of a vessel at sea. Condition report disclaimer

Auction archive: Lot number 31
Auction:
Datum:
28 Aug 2014
Auction house:
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions
16-17 Pall Mall
St James’s
London, SW1Y 5LU
United Kingdom
info@dreweatts.com
+44 (0)20 78398880
Beschreibung:

A very rare Victorian rosewood mercury 'Patent Compensating Portable Barometer' or mercury sympiesometer William Harris and Son, London, mid 19th century The rectangular silvered scale applied with short U-shaped mercury tube terminating with open bulb to left hand column opposing sealed bulb to the right, the centre with mercury tube Fahrenheit and Reaumer scale thermometer and with engraved inscription Harris's Patent Compensating Portable Barometer, the upper margin signed WILL.'M HARRIS & SON, 50 High Holborn, London, above right hand side with engraved vertical scale for degrees Fahrenheit ranging between 20 and 120 set behind slide with compressed vernier scale annotated for barometric inches and with the usual weather observations, the upper edge of the slide fitted with angled steel pointer for calibration against the temperature scale behind and with adjustment by rack and pinion to a knurled brass knob fitted to the right hand side of the case, the vernier with independent adjustment via friction slide to a smaller secondary brass knob to the exterior, the lower edge with engraved serial number 284 over recessed circular level recording disc engraved with barometric scale visible through a semi-circular aperture in the plate and manually adjusted via projecting rim to the base, the case with shaped upstand to the cavetto moulded cornice above moulded surround to the glazed front aperture, 33cm (13ins) high. Many makers with the surname Harris have worked in the London instrument trade since the middle of the 17th century, however this branch of the family can be traced back to Richard Harris who is recorded in Clifton, Gloria Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851 as working from several addresses in London circa 1710-1810. His son, William, was apprenticed to the clockmaker Joseph Robinson and gained his freedom of the Clockmaker's Company in 1796. William set up business first at 47 High Holborn, London in 1805 before moving to a couple of doors down to number 50 in 1815. The business became 'William Harris & Company' in around 1813 before being renamed 'William Harris & Son' in 1841 when William Harris is believed to have taken in his son, Richard Joshua, into partnership. The business is recorded working from 50 High Holborn until around 1855. The design of current lot was described in the 1851 publication by Adolphus Oliver Harris A Treatise on the Patent Compensation Portable Barometer and was developed by William Harris and Son as an improvement on the sympiesometer invented by Alexander Adie of Edinburgh in 1818 (which in turn was essentially an improved version of Robert Hooke's thermobarometer which was subject of a paper presented to the Royal Society in 1668). Both instruments essentially work in the same way with a syphon tube filled with liquid open to the air at one end and with trapped gas at the other (sulphuric acid and hydrogen were used in the sympiesometer). As barometric pressure increases the liquid will be forced down the tube causing the gas to be compressed, resulting in a change in level in the tube. Unfortunately the volume of the gas changes with temperature so before a reliable reading can be taken the instrument would first need to be calibrated by adjusting the position of the movable barometer scale in relation to the temperature scale behind to reflect the reading provided by the thermometer. The sympiesometer was conceived as an alternative to the mercury marine barometer as it was smaller and less susceptible to the motion of a vessel at sea. Condition report disclaimer

Auction archive: Lot number 31
Auction:
Datum:
28 Aug 2014
Auction house:
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions
16-17 Pall Mall
St James’s
London, SW1Y 5LU
United Kingdom
info@dreweatts.com
+44 (0)20 78398880
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