Huyghens mercury-kontrabarometers continiously measure the changes in air pressure. To estimate forecasts, one has to set the index on the glass tube to the actual mercury level. The tendancy of the atmospheric airpressure and the amount of change make a reliable forecast possible.
Christiaan Huyghens was a Dutch scientist who lived in the seventeenth century (1608-1647). He is known for several inventions and discoverys, all in some way related to shipping.
He solved one of the major problems that the Toricelli weather instrument showed: the degree of readability. He did this by placing a "multiplicator" onto the mercury tube. In the now U-shaped instrument couloured alcohol was filled onto the mercury surface. All changes in the mercury column where multiplied with a factor ten, and transferred to the surface of the couloured alcohol. The scale of the Toricelli became tenfold enlarged, and due to the couloured fluid, accurate and even from a distance to read.
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