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Object Overview
Before us is a Modernist Open-Frame Desk Barometer, manufactured approximately in 1933 by Zeiss Ikon A.G. and distributed through Carl Zeiss Jena. The serial number 70016 is stamped on the base of the instrument. This unusual model represents one of the most striking moments in the history of the domestic barometer — the moment when the barometer finally ceased disguising itself as a clock, a wall-mounted furnishing, or a traditional scientific instrument, and assumed the appearance of a modern machine, while losing none of its magnificence even today. A Carl Zeiss from 1933 devoted specifically to this model has survived, presenting it as — “The New Table Barometer.”
70016
gravitational
brass, chrome, copper, glass, nickel silver, steel
The appearance of the instrument is built almost entirely upon pure geometry. A narrow rectangular chrome-plated frame rises vertically from a massive two-tier cylindrical base finished in mirror-polished chrome. Within it are two parallel glass planes: the transparent front glass carries the barometric scale, while the frosted glass behind it forms a calm, pale background against which the black graphics acquire exceptional contrast.
The right-hand side of the vertical case is considerably more substantial than the left and is accentuated by two groups of fine longitudinal grooves. This asymmetry does not disturb the composition; on the contrary, it transforms the case into an architectural object in its own right. The stepped circle of the base, the rectangular vertical body, and the broad arc of the scale form a composition made from the simplest geometric elements — circle, rectangle, arc, and parallel lines.
The barometric mechanism itself is completely concealed inside the base. As a result, the measuring mechanism almost disappears visually: what remains before the observer is only the glass plane with its graphics and a slender pointer moving above it. The engineering construction becomes part of the artistic concept.
Stylistically, the instrument represents a highly characteristic German form of early-1930s modernism, positioned at the intersection of Art Deco, Neue Sachlichkeit, and functionalist industrial design. From Art Deco come the expressive geometry, stepped base, gleam of chrome, and emphasized verticality; from Neue Sachlichkeit come the rejection of decorative ornament, visual clarity, and the subordination of form to function.
Chrome is especially important here. In the early 1930s, chrome-plated surfaces were among the visual symbols of modernity — associated with automobiles, railway technology, electrical appliances, medical equipment, and new interiors. Their cold, mirror-like brilliance signified technological progress in much the same way that titanium, carbon fibre, or anodized aluminium may do in contemporary industrial design.
Today, a transparent information panel seems almost natural to us: we are surrounded by displays, electronic instrument panels, and head-up displays. But in 1932–1933, a vertical glass panel on which the numerals, scale, and a pointer emerging almost “from nowhere” appeared to exist independently must have looked extraordinarily futuristic.
Moreover, the author of this form is known. In the American register of industrial designs, Zeiss Ikon A.G., Goerz-Werk is listed with Design No. 88,298, “Table barometer,” registered on 15 November 1932, with H. Jacob named as the designer. The available evidence allows him to be identified with considerable confidence as Heinrich Jacob, an engineer whose connection with Goerz can be traced much further back: as early as 1908, a U.S. patent for a panoramic telescope names Heinrich Jacob, engineer of Steglitz, and identifies C. P. Goerz as the company to which the patent rights were assigned. Heinrich Jacob later appears among the engineers of Zeiss Ikon. Thus, this was probably not the work of an independent “star designer” in the modern sense, but rather the achievement of an experienced Goerz/Zeiss Ikon engineer-designer who succeeded in combining precision mechanics with a new language of industrial design.
Heinrich Jacob, however, did not create the basic concept of the instrument from nothing. The idea of spatially separating the sensitive barometric mechanism from the indicating system is considerably older than this model. By the late nineteenth century, so-called mystery barometers bearing the name of the French clockmaker Antoine Rédier were already being made, in which the mechanical connection between a concealed aneroid mechanism and a separately positioned pointer was deliberately made visually unobtrusive.
C. P. Goerz played an important role in the further development of this idea. The firm produced its own table barometers in which the aneroid mechanism was housed in the base while the indicating system rose above it. After C. P. Goerz merged with ICA, Ernemann, and Contessa-Nettel in the newly formed Zeiss Ikon in 1926, instrument production continued at the Goerzwerk in Berlin-Lichterfelde.
Jacob therefore did not invent the principle of the separated layout itself, but rather reinterpreted the design of the “mystery” barometer. His achievement lay in subjecting the existing Goerz Tischbarometer concept to an exceptionally radical modernist transformation. Almost everything that visually recalled a traditional barometer was eliminated, and the construction evolved into an autonomous object of the new machine age.
The barometric scale is applied directly to the inner surface of the flat front mineral glass. This solution not only protects the graphics from wear during cleaning, but also intensifies the impression of a floating scale. Behind the transparent front glass is a frosted rear panel providing an even, pale background.
The scale is graduated in millimetres of mercury, covering a range from 720 to 800 mmHg. Instead of the traditional and often misleading weather terms such as Rain, Changeable, or Fair, the instrument uses an extremely concise German classification:
HOCH — NORMAL — TIEF
HIGH — NORMAL — LOW
This choice was deliberate, since typography forms an integral part of the architecture of the object. The lettering is a geometric sans-serif, closely aligned in spirit with the new functionalist typography of the interwar period; the precise commercial typeface cannot be established reliably from the available evidence. Particularly striking are the vertically arranged words HOCH and TIEF. They no longer merely label areas of the scale: the letters become graphic verticals incorporated directly into the composition of the case. Text ceases to be ornament and becomes part of the form itself.
The working barometric pointer is made of light-coloured metal. In addition, there is a separate black reference or trend pointer, which the user manually aligns with the current reading; after some time, the divergence between the two pointers indicates the direction of the atmospheric pressure change. It is adjusted by a small conventional knurled knob on the rear of the vertical case.
As already noted, the barometric mechanism is housed in the base of the instrument. This arrangement allowed the vertical section to remain exceptionally thin, but required an unusual transmission system to carry motion from the horizontally positioned sensitive element to the pointer spindle located considerably higher above it.
The sensitive element is a large, 45 mm corrugated aneroid capsule made of German silver, with a rigid central area. The lower part of the capsule is rigidly fixed relative to the main plate of the mechanism, while the extremely small movements of its upper wall, caused by changes in atmospheric pressure, are transmitted to a mechanical amplifying system.
A tiny pushrod takes the movement from the centre of the capsule and transfers it to a long brass rocking lever mounted on pivot bearings. These allow the lever to rotate freely and to operate as a two-armed lever with unequal arms: a very small movement of the capsule is converted into a substantially larger movement at the end of the long arm.
It is here that one of the most interesting features of the mechanism begins. Attached to the long arm is a thin, elongated metal rod — almost a wire or string — running vertically upward through the widened right-hand section of the frame to the pointer assembly. In this way, two spatially separated units — the barometric mechanism in the base and the indicator above — are mechanically connected with the smallest possible transmission volume.
At the upper end, this rod is connected to a short length of extremely fine fusee chain, which passes around a small drum on the pointer spindle. The linear movement of the rod is thereby converted into rotation of the spindle and movement of the pointer along the curved scale.
The return-tension system is particularly interesting. Instead of the traditional flat spiral hairspring commonly found in many aneroid mechanisms, this instrument uses a long cylindrical helical extension spring with a large number of coils. Its upper end is fixed to the frame, while its lower end is connected to a second short fusee chain wound around the pointer spindle from the opposite side. The two chains therefore act upon the same spindle in opposite directions: one transmits the working movement from the aneroid system, while the other maintains constant tension in the transmission and eliminates free play.
This is an exceptionally rational solution. The long spring, two miniature chains, and vertical transmission rod make it possible to accommodate the entire transmission and return function within a case only about 16 mm thick.
Another special feature of the instrument is hidden beneath the base. There is a detailed factory instruction plate protected by a transparent plastic cover.
At the top it states explicitly:
Das Instrument zeigt auf Meereshöhe reduzierten Luftdruck an.
That is, the instrument is intended to display atmospheric pressure reduced to sea level, rather than the actual absolute pressure at the location where the instrument is installed.
On the right is a table headed Luftdruckdifferenz zwischen Meereshöhe und Ortshöhe — the atmospheric-pressure difference between sea level and the elevation of the installation site. It covers elevations from 100 to 1500 metres, corresponding to corrections of approximately 9 to 128 mmHg.
A separate adjustment allows the instrument to be set for a particular altitude. The instructions state that the adjusting screw should be turned in the direction indicated by the arrow; the pointer begins to follow the movement of the screw after one to six revolutions. A space is also provided where the altitude for which the individual instrument had originally been adjusted could be entered.
In addition, the mechanism could be taken out of operation during transport. This was necessary, for example, when the instrument was carried by rail through high-altitude regions, where a rapid and substantial fall in atmospheric pressure could cause the pointer to move far beyond its normal working range. This feature was specifically advertised by Zeiss in the 1933 brochure.
The Modernist Open-Frame Desk Barometer is unusual because its historical significance exists simultaneously in two equally important dimensions.
From an engineering point of view, it is a highly sophisticated aneroid instrument: a large sensitive capsule, lever amplification, spatially separated sensing and indicating units, an unusual rod-and-chain transmission, a dedicated tensioning system, and the ability to display pressure reduced to sea level.
At the same time, it is an outstanding object of early-1930s German industrial design. Its creator, Heinrich Jacob, took a principle with a long prehistory in precision mechanics and in Goerz instruments and brought it to an almost extreme degree of visual abstraction. The mechanism disappeared into the pedestal; the traditional round dial disappeared; the decorative case disappeared. What remained were circle, rectangle, glass, chrome, typography, and the movement of a single slender pointer.
That is precisely why, almost a century later, the instrument does not look old-fashioned. On the contrary, knowing its date makes it even more remarkable. In 1932–1933, when this design was patented and introduced, it offered its owner not a stylized memory of the past, but a deliberately conceived image of the future. The separate American design patent, granted on 15 November 1932, confirms that this unusual form was regarded by Zeiss Ikon itself as a design achievement in its own right.
In this sense, the barometer truly captures a turning point: the barometer ceased to look like a clock or a piece of furniture and, for the first time, proudly began to look like a machine.