Darwin's Barometer - Objectivity 266

We're back at the Royal Society to see an antique mountain barometer that Darwin himself used on the famous Beagle voyage. More links below ↓↓↓
Bonus stills from the behind-the-scenes here: / 75834017
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[@ObjectivityVideos]

Bonus stills from the behind-the-scenes here: www.patreon.com/posts/75834017

[@leppeppel]

"I wasn't even packing a sandwich, I'm afraid" is such a quintessentially British (under)statement.

[@blindleader42]

Firearms, optional. Sandwiches not so much.

[@Xatzimi]

Right to bear sandwiches

[@Olhado256]

The chemistry between Brady and Keith is my favourite thing about this channel

[@wbfaulk]

I like how "Newmans Improved Portable Cistern" (1:44) is marked "Not Portable" (6:50).

[@sshuggi]

"I wasn't even packing a sandwich." Lol, that was quick, Keith.

[@c97f]

The concept of British institutions asking for their stuff back gave me a chuckle.

[@modernkennnern]

One of the things I'm hoping for is for Brady to become a member of the royal society. No other person have made as many people aware of its existence and its purpose.

[@random-rjawesome]

Im sure he is a member

[@nodakamakadon]

It has to be only a matter of time..

[@BillMSmith]

You guys have a lot of cool things, but I found this especially so. Just thinking about Darwin hauling this thing around, and up and down mountains, and it still being in such good shape is incredible.

[@SimonClark]

The captain of the Beagle, Robert Fitzroy would also have taken extensive meteorological measurements including using the ship's barometer. Lack of warning of a storm caused loss of life on a previous voyage and so FitzRoy stuck to his instruments. To the extent that he went on to rum the UK met office and make the first weather forecasts.

[@rtpoe]

Objectivity has THE BEST "unboxing" videos.

[@gregcollins3404]

How to use a barometer to measure height of a building: 1) drop the barometer from the top of the building, time its fall, and use the equation of motion to derive the height. 2) use the proportion between the lengths of the building's shadow and that of the barometer to calculate the building's height from the height of the barometer. 3) using the barometer as a measuring rod to mark off its height on the wall while climbing the stairs, then counting the number of marks. 4) suspend the barometer from a string to create a pendulum, then using the pendulum to measure the strength of Earth's gravity at the top and bottom of the building, and calculating the height of the building from the difference in the two measurements (see Newton's law of universal gravitation). 5) Probably the best, is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent’s door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: ‘Mr. Superintendent, here I have a fine barometer, if you will tell me the height of the building, I will give you this barometer.”

[@Jack-ne8vm]

6. Measure the force to stretch the barometer one millimeter. Stretch the barometer to the length of the building, measure the force needed & proportion.

[@dwaneanderson8039]

If you ever ask to borrow my barometer, I will politely decline.

[@monstermoonshine]

5:05 "Keith has a long memory" -- and he's immortal ;-)

[@TheRealInscrutable]

The lingering gaze on the label that says "not portable" after the description of the long and short voyages this thing has been on is classic English humor.

[@offdagrid877]

Love it when a notification pops up for one of your videos, especially Objectivety

[@ObjectivityVideos]

Nice to hear - and thanks for watching

[@mgssmu]

Love Keith' tie tie/knot

[@DavidM-um2uk]

That's a glorious piece of workmanship, as beautiful as it is functional. They don't make them like that anymore!

[@mfbfreak]

You can still get mercury based barometers, they're quite beautiful. They're called contrabarometers over here.

[@Neil-ii3dp]

Know what people who are definitely packing heat say? "I wasn't even packing a sandwich"

[@LadyAnuB]

Just imagine the Royal Society sending their collection agents around asking politely for their objects back. (My imagination goes to Vinnie "No Neck" and "Breaker" Johnson coming around and 'politely' insinuating bad things happening to the places carrying the loaned items if they are not returned. 😅)

[@WouterWeggelaar]

I am fairly sure that's why the van is armoured and Keith is armed with deadly secret sandwiches 😀

[@jkadoodle]

It used to be a barometer but has evolved into an artifact

[@blindleader42]

"Belongs in a museum" - I. Jones

[@mauricemaths]

Would it still work? I presume it works like Torricelli's barometer, but how do they prevent the mercury from leaking out?

[@blindbrick]

You must be very careful laying those kind of barometers down. If you do that to fast, the heavy mercury column will ram through the top of the glass. There is no buffer gas in the top to slow that mass down.

[@Prophet_Isaiah]

Darwin's is seriously my favorite scientist of all time (and seeing his HMS gear is so cool)!

[@Qenton]

Wow, an unboxing video

[@2009mouser]

The classiest unboxing video ever.

[@Muonium1]

It would be great if you took it into a dark room to see if it still produces flashes of blue so-called barometric light as the mercury column moves in its glass tube as was discovered by French astronomer Jean Picard while walking home from his observatory one night in 1676 carrying a barometer.

[@brandonwinstead7137]

Stay strapped Keith

[@GypsyDishwasher]

So, at the end of the exhibition, will the barometer go back to Down House? Or will it remain at the Royal Society?

[@NiksSofa]

Brady flexing again with having one of *the* coolest jobs :)

[@wbfaulk]

The location that housed the maker of this barometer is now occupied by a "The Body Shop". I don't think they sell any portable iron cisterns, though.

[@yogeshsingla131]

A British museum series would be fun.

[@TrevorTrottier]

Charles Darwin couldn't use a hammock properly and was his major gripe about sea travel.

[@davidrenton]

rumour has it Keith escorted the Ark of the Covenant as Indy wasn't enough

[@dwaneanderson8039]

And on that occasion, he did pack a sandwich.

[@billcook4768]

You know that knight guarding the grail? The “he chose poorly” guy? Keith.

[@robertconklin3322]

A particularly good episode of Objectivity!

[@Rubrickety]

I quite liked the demonstration that Brady has the power to attract mercury with his thumb.

[@nodakamakadon]

I need some Photoshop of Keith packin' heat.

[@_infinitedomain]

I love this, how cool. Thanks guys

[@iteerrex8166]

Very cool! And I always thought a cistern was a big water tank, but I guess it could be a reservoir of anything..

[@Olhado256]

I think in modern English a cistern is strictly for water but the meanings of words change over time

[@johnopalko5223]

@@Olhado256 A cistern is any closed space acting as a reservoir for fluid. In medical terminology it usually refers to a space containing lymph or cerebrospinal fluid. There are many cisterns, or cisternae, in the human body.

[@rhydianevans6038]

This was great!

[@PeterGaunt]

Thanks Brady! Lovely to see that lovely instrument. I was only wondering the other day if Keith was OK. Haven't seen him on your channel for a while.

[@sunny_muffins]

I wonder what treasures are still hidden in the catacombs of the Royal Society...

[@robmarshallofficial]

I loved this episode

[@francoislacombe9071]

Well, if that barometer made it back intact from the voyage of the Beagle, it can't be all that fragile.🤔

[@AsbestosMuffins]

lol, ya its made to survive being on a ship, and probably ported but you don't exactly wanna test that logic

[@mfbfreak]

You might be right, but who knows how many times it had been repaired in its working life. That mercury bouncing up and down made me a bit worried about it impacting the top of the tube with significant force. If you ever handled a small mercury switch, you know how massively heavy the stuff is. You can feel the very specific 'thunk' if you make the mercury bang against the glass. But yeah. It's been through worse stuff than a ride in a van, it'll probably be fiiiine. Edit: someone else in the comments noted that there's no buffer gas in the top of the barometer that can dampen the blow of the mercury column - blowing out the top of the glass is a genuine risk.

[@donjones4719]

@@mfbfreak The ones made for marine use may have had thicker glass at the top and overall. They were a standard instrument on many Navy ships of Darwin's time, used for forecasting the weather.

[@Fiscacondaniel]

Gucci glasses. The drip 🥶

[@stanlee268]

Welcome back

[@PhysicsLaure]

It is amazing how far we have gone as humans! 🤩

[@CheshireTomcat68]

*despite being humans.

[@kidmohair8151]

imagine how much farther we can go, if we don't let greed get in our way.

[@TheCrimsonFlash]

You should do a video on the Royal Institution.

[@magnumsalyer]

To think that London just has various "Royal" places 😂

[@carnsoaks1]

Nice.

[@billcook4768]

Am I detecting a hint of competition between the Royal Society and the Royal Institution?

[@praveenb9048]

I'm sure Keith had a 17th century blunderbuss in the car.

[@RFC-3514]

0:55 - Assuming it's plain metallic mercury (as it should), it's not poisonous. It's "organic" mercury (i.e., certain salts containing mercury) that are highly poisonous and can be absorbed through the skin. Metallic mercury you can handle (or even swallow), and you'll be fine. You can even inject it into your veins and it won't be particularly toxic (but will block blood flow, so don't). The vapours can be slightly toxic, but you'd need a _lot_ of exposure to suffer any long-term effects.

[@rootvalley2]

I wonder what keeps the mercury in but allows air in/out?

[@Qexilber]

So what happens if you check that list of loaned objects and check up on one and after several decades, the people at the institution it was loaned to have no idea anymore, where it is? Or that it was loaned to them in the first place. I mean, they could have just forgotten about it after it was packed away during some hause maintanance but still there, or it could actually be gone without knowing where it went. What is the course of action for such a case? And did that ever happen before?

[@Reactordrone]

6:49 "Not portable". Darwin may have voided the warranty.

[@kidmohair8151]

ok you guys have to stop having fun...this is serious stuff

[@zapfanzapfan]

I'm sure Keith delivered it 90 years ago.

[@DevilishScience]

122 Regent Street is now The Body Shop🤨

[@meatballg8655]

Loaned for 90 years sounds an awful lot like legal theft to me

[@TraitorVek]

5:05 - Whale Willy

[@FDog16]

fun fact: I have neighbour videos of A.Savage and Your In subs feed.

[@cj548]

Charles Darwin proclaimed it is impossible to be an atheist

[@MengHuaHung]

No, agnostic was his claimed. And it was invented by his friend, Thomas Huxley

[@cj548]

@@MengHuaHung yes. Same thing

[@MengHuaHung]

@@cj548 no, if you Google it. The meaning is different from the atheist…

[@tabularasa0606]

And it's totally irrelevant to the subject.

[@cj548]

@@MengHuaHung exactly. Agnostic is the same thing that I said Charles Darwin said in my initial statement. Charles Darwin understood that it is impossible for someone to be an atheist