aneroid barometer

American  

noun

1. a device for measuring atmospheric pressure, often specially calibrated for use as an altimeter, consisting of a box or chamber partially exhausted of air, having an elastic top and a pointer to indicate the degree of compression of the top caused by the external air.

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aneroid barometer British  

noun

1. a device for measuring atmospheric pressure without the use of fluids. It consists of a partially evacuated metal chamber, the thin corrugated lid of which is displaced by variations in the external air pressure. This displacement is magnified by levers and made to operate a pointer

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aneroid barometer Scientific  

/ ăn′ə-roid′ /

1. A barometer consisting of a thin elastic disk covering a chamber that contains a partial vacuum. High atmospheric pressure pushes against the disk and causes it to bulge inward, while low pressure does not push as hard, allowing the disk to bulge outward. An aneroid barometer is smaller and more portable than a mercury barometer and, when used with a barograph, can record up to a week's worth of data. Aneroid barometers are used extensively in aviation as part of altimeters.

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Etymology

Origin of aneroid barometer

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

Trekking to a mountain top, he used an aneroid barometer to help him calculate its height.

From BBC • Nov. 13, 2013

The aneroid barometer does not use a column of air in the same way as the old instrument.

From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II by Smith, David Eugene

This is the mercurial barometer; another, the aneroid barometer, invented by Monsr.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir

The pressure at the surface of Mars will therefore be 2·1 lb.; and the aneroid barometer would read 4·3 inches.

From Are the Planets Inhabited? by Maunder, E. Walter (Edward Walter)

Got a little doodad out of his pocket; aneroid barometer, or something, he said it was.

From The Brain by Blade, Alexander