It measures blood pressure. This is the force of blood pushing against the inside of the blood vessel walls. When someone is taking your blood pressure they are actually trying to hear it.

The typical sphygmomanometer consists of an inflatable cuff and a pressure-measuring device called a manometer. The person taking your blood pressure inflates the cuff around your upper arm and places a stethoscope on the inside of your elbow. As they let the pressure out of the cuff they listen for a "swooshing" or thumping sound. They record the reading on the manometer when they first hear the sound and when they last hear the sound. So if they first hear the sound when the manometer reads 120 and they last hear the sound it when it reads 80, your blood pressure is 120 over 80. They would write this as 120/80.

Dr. Scipione Riva-Rocci of Italy introduced the mechanical sphygmomanometer in 1896. It gets its name from the Greek word sphygmus, which means pulse and the term manometer. While Dr. Riva-Rocci didn't create the first sphygmomanometer his was the first simple solution that gave fairly accurate measurements.

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