The barometer is an instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure. Evangelista Torricelli invented the barometer, also known as the ‘Torricelli Tube’.
Evangelista Torricelli was born October 15, 1608, in Faenza, Italy and died October 22, 1647 in Florence, Italy. He was a physicist and mathematician. In 1641, Evangelista Torricelli moved to Florence to assist the astronomer Galileo. It was Galileo who suggested to Evangelista Torricelli that to use mercury in his vacuum experiments. Torricelli filled a four-foot long glass tube with mercury ad inverted the tube into a dish.
Some of the mercury did not escape from the tube, and Torricelli observed the vacuum and to discover the principle of a barometer. Torricelli realized that the variation of the height of the mercury from day to day was caused by changes in the atmospheric pressure. Torricelli built the first mercury barometer around 1644.
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