Torricellian tube

/ ˌtɒrɪˈsɛlɪən /

noun

1. a vertical glass tube partly evacuated and partly filled with mercury, the height of which is used as a measure of atmospheric pressure

Word History and Origins

Origin of Torricellian tube¹

C17: named after E. Torricelli

Example Sentences

Such claims were not straightforward—Jesuit scientists strenuously opposed Gilbert’s claim that the Earth itself was a magnet, and opponents of the vacuum protested that the Torricellian tube was deceptive, for it appeared to contain nothing in the space above the mercury when it surely contained something.

From Literature

In Pascal’s account of why the mercury does not descend in the Torricellian tube the formal and material causes are so attenuated as to be uninteresting, and the final cause has disappeared completely.

From Literature

Between the recognition that the Torricellian tube is a pressure gauge and the invention of the atmospheric steam engine there was no intervention of an extraneous factor.

From Literature

Third, Roberval devised an experiment where a carp’s bladder which had been flattened and sealed tight was placed at the top of the Torricellian tube.

From Literature

To know that the mercury in the Torricellian tube stands thirty inches high is not really rational knowledge if we do not know that it is sustained at this height by the counterbalancing weight of the atmosphere.

From Project Gutenberg