Torricellian tube

British

/ ˌtɒrɪˈsɛlɪən /

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Torricellian tube

C17: named after E. _Torricelli

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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 "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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 "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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 "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs The ponderous mercury, from scale to scale Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube.

From The Natural History of Selborne by White, Gilbert

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023