Carved, chased and gilded wood barometer by Torricelli, the - Lot 87

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  3. Carved, chased and gilded wood barometer by Torricelli, the - Lot 87
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Lot n° 87
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300 - 500 EUR
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Result : 280EUR
Carved, chased and gilded wood barometer by Torricelli, the - Lot 87
Carved, chased and gilded wood barometer by Torricelli, the thermometer and dial watercolored with cornucopia and foliate decoration, signed "Legalois rue des Francs Bourgeois" and dated "1735", the case decorated with palmettes, foliate scrolls, and surmounted by a fruit pot. Louis XV period. 110 x 38 cm Notice The barometer is an invention developed by accident. Torricelli, Galileo's former secretary, was not directly interested in atmospheric pressure, but in the water jets of fountains. Around 1643, Torricelli tried to solve a mystery: why do water columns rise no higher than 10 m? Torricelli decided to replace water with mercury, which is heavier than water and less voluminous because it is denser. He designed a glass tube filled with mercury, which he inverted over a basin of water, without letting any air inside. The amount of mercury needed to fill the 76 cm column reproduces the force exerted by a 10 m column of water. The force exerted by the air on the column slows its ascent, and it is impossible to fight against this force. He then realized that water cannot rise above 10 m for physical, not technological, reasons. In 1676, following Blaise Pascal's work on atmospheric pressure, the Académie des Sciences named this tube Torricelli's barometer, and named its unit of measurement the Torr (1 Torr = 1 mm on the mercury column).
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