Some times I wonder how peoples brains work. We have a discussion on two/three pointer altimeters and the jist seems to be that it is the three pointer altimeter that can instigate erronious readings.
Let us recap:
A two pointer has two needles. One does a complete rotataion every thousand feet and the other, smaller, does a rotation every ten thousand feet.
Therefore, at Zero, ten thousand, twenty thousand, etc both needles are at the Zero point. By definition, if you put somebody in a cockpit without external references he will be unable to ascertain his correct altitude within ten thousand feet.
This is why in the early days of jet aircraft pilots were losing track of their rate of descent and were splashing into the ground when they thought they had stacks of height; occasions often confirmed by radio calls.
Come the three needle altimeter. This has a needle that tells you your ten thousand foot increments so the alimeter can NEVER be ambiguous. Despite this pilots were still flying into the ground because when things go wrong even the blindingly obvious gets ignored.
Come the barber's pole. This is a striped area that shows on the face at around 17,000 ft in the descent. This lasted for a few years and then came the rotating number job with just one needle. That seems to he solved the problem.
There are still two needle altimeters in common use; they read in metres. I have flown many hours with those in China as with Russia it was the reference measurement. Very easy to maintain a reasonable height and paired with an ASI calibrated in Kilometers incredibly fast.