Alexander Adie

Who was Alexander Adie?

Alexander James Adie FRSE MWS was a Scottish maker of medical instruments, optician and meteorologist. He was the inventor of the sympiesometer, patented in 1818.

Apprenticed in 1789 to his uncle John Miller, they went into business together as Miller and Adie until 1822. Adie supplied lenses to Joseph Hooker, Charles Darwin and Sir David Brewster and was optician to William IV and to Queen Victoria. He invented the sympiesometer or marine barometer and had a small observatory erected long before there was a public observatory in Edinburgh. He was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 25 January 1819, upon the proposal of Lord F Gray, Sir David Brewster and James Russell.

Adie lived at 10 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh from 1832 to 1838. He died at Caanan Lodge, Edinburgh, and was interred at Greyfriars.