Alberti's anemometer
Anemoscopio de Alberti
- Date
- c. 1450 · confidence medium
- Place
- Rome, Latium, Italy
- Credited to
- Leon Battista Alberti
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A plate that tilts more or less about an axis according to the force of the wind, with a graduated scale to read the angle. It is the first known anemometer and the basis for later pressure anemometers.
Alberti's description comes from his treatise on architecture and instruments (around 1450); Leonardo da Vinci later drew another type.
What it led to
- plate and pressure anemometers (Hooke, Pitot)
- quantitative wind measurement in naval and land meteorology