-> Thanks for those - and consider my reply to Paul ...  any other  
-> solutions outside those mentioned there ? 
  
The suggestions about dropping the barometer and timing its fall are 
only approximate. Atmospheric viscosity would mess up the measurement. 
But if the barometer is a real Torricellian one, with an extremely long 
evacuated tube above the mercury, then with some ingenuity it should be 
possible to drop something in the vacuum, thereby avoiding the 
viscosity problem. This would be something that could be done with a 
barometer but not, for example, with a sledgehammer, would make better 
sense of the question. 
  
                            dow 
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5