Anemoscope

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An anemoscope is an obsolete machine invented to show the direction of the wind, or to foretell a change of wind direction or weather.

Hygroscopic devices, in particular those utilizing cat guts (or perhaps catgut), were considered as very good anemoscopes, seldom failing to foretell the shifting of the wind.

The ancient anemoscope seems, by Vitruvius's description of it, to have been intended rather to show which way the wind actually blew, than to foretell into which quarter it would change.

Otto von Guericke also gave the title anemoscope to a machine invented by him to foretell the change of the weather, as to fair and rain. It consisted of a little wooden man, who rose and fell in a glass tube, as the atmospheric pressure increased or decreased. Accordingly, M. Comiers has shown that this was simply an application of the common barometer. This form of the anemoscope was invented by Leonardo Da Vinci.

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This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.

Vitruvius lived over 1500 years before Leonardo da Vinci, therefore, the phrase declaring that the anemoscope was invented by da Vinci needs either to qualified or rephrased.