Name/Title
Wheel BarometerEntry/Object ID
2001.01.27Description
Wheel barometerUse
A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure and it can help forecast short-term changes in the weather.Context
The maker of this barometer, the company Negretti and Zambra (active 1850 - ca. 1999), produced scientific, meteorological, aviation and optical instruments and also operated a photographic studio based in London, England. Henry Angelo Ludovici Negretti (1818-1879) and Joseph Warren Zambra (1822-1897) formed a partnership in 1850, founding the firm which would lead the world in the manufacture of precision mathematical, scientific, and surveying instruments. Negretti and Zambra would later be appointed as opticians and scientific instrument makers to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and King Edward VII, the Royal Observatory, the British Meteorological Society and the British Admiralty.
In 1851 they exhibited their meteorological instruments at the Great Exhibition at Hyde Park and were the only English instrument makers to receive a prize medal in their category. Negretti & Zambra were later awarded the contract as the official photographers of the Crystal Palace Company, which allowed them to photograph the famed Crystal Palace when it was re-erected in Sydenham in 1854, from which they produced a number of stereographs of the building and grounds. Once established as one of London’s leading photographers, Negretti & Zambra sponsored an expedition by British photographer Francis Frith (1822-1898) to Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia in 1856. They also also funded the pioneering Swiss photographer Pierre Joseph Rossier’s (1829-1866) travels between 1855 and 1857, which resulted in the first commercial photographs of China, Japan, the Philippines, and Siam (Thailand).
Negretti & Zambra continued to innovate in the field of scientific instruments and in the marketing of their products, patenting a number of developments, such as barometers and thermometers capable of functioning under extremes of pressure and movement. They also played a major role in Britain’s war effort in the First and Second World Wars.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Negretti & ZambraRole
Scientific and optical instruments makerDate made
circa 1850Time Period
19th CenturyNotes
Oak and glass wheel barometer with swan neck and concealed mercury tube.
NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA Corporate History
- see Web LinksInscription/Signature/Marks
Type
InscriptionLocation
On dial: Negretti & Zambra London 12893Acquisition
Acquisition Method
Legacy collection - detail unknown
