Barometer #2002-1070King’s Hall, North Wing, Main Floor
Thermometer, barometer and barograph attached to maple support; thermometer with black curved top and bottom brackets and white backing at top; circular barometer in centre with glass face and gold rim, and inscriptions ‘Stormy/Rain/Change/Fair/Very Dry’; barograph on the bottom with removable timber-framed glass case, supported by a square maple platform.
This instrument consists of a barograph, a barometer and a thermometer. It was manufactured by Short & Mason, London, a company that was recognised as leaders in the field of barometer design. It was purchased through E. Esdaile & Sons, Sydney, a key manufacturer and retailer of scientific instruments in Australia between 1894 to 1962. It is currently (as of 2011) mounted on a maple wall bracket in King’s Hall, where it has likely been located throughout the life of the building.
It is evident that a barometer was located in King’s Hall from at least the 1940s as Warren Denning, a member of the Press Gallery at the Provisional Parliament House, mentions the instrument in his book Inside Parliament (published 1946). It is highly possible that this barometer was located in King’s Hall from the time the building was opened, as the retailer had various stamps and the one present on the barometer, ‘E. Esdaile & Sons’, establishes that this object was manufactured sometime between 1924 and 1947.
This instrument measures temperature and atmospheric pressure. It would have been an important indicator of the weather in an era that didn’t have the modern technology or instant weather forecasts that exist in current times. Denning discusses the relevance of having a barometer in the main Hall of the Provisional Parliament House of Australia in Inside Parliament:
‘Modestly placed in one corner there is a barometer, which has nothing to do with registering or forecasting the state of the political weather. Rather it is a symbol of the importance of rain in the Australian outlook. The rural members who wistfully stand before it from time to time unconsciously reveal how much the vitality of Australia depends on her rainfall’ (Denning, 1946, p. 81 ? 82).