A Victorian brass Kew Pattern marine mercury stick barometer configured for use on land Adie and Wedderburn, Edinburgh, second half of the 19th century The cylindrical silvered scale calibrated in barometric inches divided to twentieths and with Vernier slide fitted flush within the tube viewing aperture, the vertical left hand margin signed ADIE & WEDDERBURN, EDINBURGH. the lower margin engraved No. 760, set behind cylindrical glass collar with Vernier adjustment screw and gimballed support over applied mercury tube Fahrenheit scale thermometer to the narrow trunk below, the base with moulded cylindrical iron cistern cover braced within further supporting ring to lower edge, 94cm (37ins) high; applied to original ogee moulded oak wall panel, 105cm (41.25ins) high overall. Provenance: Private collection Hampshire (ref. B27). Alexander Adie is recorded in Banfield, Edwin BAROMETER MAKERS AND RETAILERS 1660-1900 as born 1775 and dying in 1858. Adie was the nephew of John Miller one of the leading Scottish makers of Scientific Instruments in the 18th century and was apprenticed to him in 1789. In 1804 they formed the partnership of Miller and Adie which continued until the death of John Miller in 1815. Adie continued the business alone specialising in meteorological instruments obtaining a patent in 1818 for his air barometer or sympiesometer. In recognition of this invention he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1819. He was appointed optician to William IV and later Queen Victoria after forming a partnership with his son, John, in 1835 to form Adie & Son. John's brother, Richard, moved to Liverpool where he set-up business in Bold Street in 1835. He employed Thomas Wedderburn as a foreman in Edinburgh through whom the current lot was probably supplied. The current lot is made to the pattern of standard marine barometer devised by Patric Adie and John Welsh of the Kew observatory in 1855. Although the instrument is mounted via gimbals the cistern steadying ring and very close proximity of the oak board behind indicates that it was supplied for use on land possibly for a laboratory or meteorological station.
A Victorian brass Kew Pattern marine mercury stick barometer configured for use on land Adie and Wedderburn, Edinburgh, second half of the 19th century The cylindrical silvered scale calibrated in barometric inches divided to twentieths and with Vernier slide fitted flush within the tube viewing aperture, the vertical left hand margin signed ADIE & WEDDERBURN, EDINBURGH. the lower margin engraved No. 760, set behind cylindrical glass collar with Vernier adjustment screw and gimballed support over applied mercury tube Fahrenheit scale thermometer to the narrow trunk below, the base with moulded cylindrical iron cistern cover braced within further supporting ring to lower edge, 94cm (37ins) high; applied to original ogee moulded oak wall panel, 105cm (41.25ins) high overall. Provenance: Private collection Hampshire (ref. B27). Alexander Adie is recorded in Banfield, Edwin BAROMETER MAKERS AND RETAILERS 1660-1900 as born 1775 and dying in 1858. Adie was the nephew of John Miller one of the leading Scottish makers of Scientific Instruments in the 18th century and was apprenticed to him in 1789. In 1804 they formed the partnership of Miller and Adie which continued until the death of John Miller in 1815. Adie continued the business alone specialising in meteorological instruments obtaining a patent in 1818 for his air barometer or sympiesometer. In recognition of this invention he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1819. He was appointed optician to William IV and later Queen Victoria after forming a partnership with his son, John, in 1835 to form Adie & Son. John's brother, Richard, moved to Liverpool where he set-up business in Bold Street in 1835. He employed Thomas Wedderburn as a foreman in Edinburgh through whom the current lot was probably supplied. The current lot is made to the pattern of standard marine barometer devised by Patric Adie and John Welsh of the Kew observatory in 1855. Although the instrument is mounted via gimbals the cistern steadying ring and very close proximity of the oak board behind indicates that it was supplied for use on land possibly for a laboratory or meteorological station.
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