The oscillations of the barometer during gales of wind must have been noticed soon after the invention of the instrument by Torricelli 200 years ago. Every observer is familiar with the fact, that the barometric column is continually rising and falling during gales; and we frequently meet such observations as “Barometer very unsteady,” in Meteorological Registers.

In Sir William Reid's work on the Law of Storms, he says, “during the hardest part of the gale (the Bermuda hurricane of 1839) several persons observed remarkable oscillations of the mercury in the tubes of the barometers;” and in a letter which I had the honour to receive from the Astronomer-Royal, Professor Airy, in reply to one from myself on this subject, he says, “I think (but am not certain) that the depression of the barometer at every gust of a gale of wind is an ordinary phenomenon, without reference to the position of the barometer with regard to the direction of the wind. Many years ago I was in the observatory of Marseilles during the blowing of the Mistral (a wind well known there), and there I saw the drop of the barometer at every gust in great perfection. I do not remember the position of the barometer.”