Cecil Moore wrote:

Jim Kelley wrote:
Cecil Moore wrote:
By Golly, I have been looking for a cable stretcher. A tilted
mercury column will perform that function.

How so?

The gravity vector remains constant while the tilted mercury
vector varies with the angle of the tilt. Let's say theta
is the angle of the tilt, i.e. the angle between the mercury
column and the ground plane. At an angle of 45 degrees, the
mercury column length will be 1.414 times the length at 90 degrees,
At 10 degrees, the mercury column length will be 5.76 times the
length at 90 degrees. That sounds like something worth patenting.

I saw a further explanation in your later post. Important point - the
resevoir, open to air or a source of constant pressure for example. As
you tilt the vertical section, the height above ground remains constant
because it is balanced by the pressure on the reservoir. In order to
maintain the height above ground as the column is being tilted, the
column must increase in length.

It works beautifully by the way, Cecil. I just tried it with a mercury
barometer.
73, Jim AC6XG