Green Mercury Barometer

Description: James Green began making portable mercury barometers for the Smithsonian in the mid-1850s, and his successor, H.J. Green, was still making similar instruments in the 1930s. This example is of that sort. But, in place of the original leather cistern, it has a cistern that was designed by Charles B. Tuch, an employee of the Instrument Division of the Signal Service and later the U.S. Weather Bureau. The barometer is marked "H.J. Green, B'klyn N.Y" and "Signal Service No. 160A," and was probably made before the establishment of the Weather Bureau in 1891.; Ref.: C.F. Marvin, Barometers and the Measurement of Atmospheric Pressure (Washington, D.C., 1894); the “Tuch Cistern” is described and illustrated on pp. 15-16.
Location: Currently not on view

Measurements: overall: 40 in; 101.6 cm; overall: 40 3/8 in x 1 3/4 in; 102.5525 cm x 4.445 cm

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