A barometer and a thermometer of Felice Fontana / Peter K. Knoefel.
Abstract:
Felice Fontana had the workshop of the Florentine Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History build two instruments said to be of his design. They were a balance barometer, or barometer by weight, and an organic thermometer of great sensitivity. These instruments were seen and described by a visitor, Argand, and were mentioned in a letter of Fontana to a friend. It appears that he may have taken the design of the barometer, without acknowledgment, from Richmann of St. Petersburg. The design of the thermometer was his. Subsequent inventories of the Museum list only the barometer, as in poor condition
Annali dell'Istituto e Museo di storia della scienza di Firenze A. 5, fasc. 2 (1980), p. 55-67