Abstract
MR. COPPOCK'S explanation (NATURE, vol. xix. p. 484) has occurred also to me; but may I be allowed to remind him that in consequence of the internal construction of the marine barometer (the pipette and the contraction in the tube), when it is sloped the mercury rises and falls very slowly. As it naturally rises and falls at a decreasing rate, if the barometer be sloped for a few seconds it takes a comparatively long time for the mercury to resume its original position. I have just sloped one of Adie's marine barometers at 30° from the vertical, and I find it takes more than ten minutes to recover itself. I do not know what may be the actual practice on board ship, but I cannot but think that a plan which renders a barometer useless for ten minutes to another or the same observer must be an unusual one.
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BUCK, J. Unscientific Art. Nature 19, 508 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019508b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019508b0
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