. Bulletin. Science. Figure 16.—Richard's registering aneroid barometer, an instrument used at the Weather Bureau about 1888. The Richard registering thermoineter is similar, the aneroid being replaced by an alcohol-filled Bourdon tube. {USNM 2^2g8i; Smithsonian photo ^Sy^p-C^ late 19th century instruments can only be tentatively drawn. The conclusion is inescapable, however, that the majority of the instruments upon which the self- registering systems of the late 19th century were based had been proposed and, in most cases, actually con- structed in the 17th century. It is also evident t
. Bulletin. Science. Figure 16.—Richard's registering aneroid barometer, an instrument used at the Weather Bureau about 1888. The Richard registering thermoineter is similar, the aneroid being replaced by an alcohol-filled Bourdon tube. {USNM 2^2g8i; Smithsonian photo ^Sy^p-C^ late 19th century instruments can only be tentatively drawn. The conclusion is inescapable, however, that the majority of the instruments upon which the self- registering systems of the late 19th century were based had been proposed and, in most cases, actually con- structed in the 17th century. It is also evident that in the 17th century at least one attempt was made at a system as comprehensive as any accomplished in the 19th century. To attribute the success of self-registering instru- ments in the late 19th century to the unquestionable improvements in the techniques of the instrument- maker is to beg the question, for it is by no means clear that the techniques of the 17th-century instru- ment-maker were unequal to the task. It should also be noted that the photographic and electromagnetic systems of the 19th century seem to have been some- thing of an interlude, for some of the latest and most durable (all of Draper's and Richard's instruments and Marvin's barograph) were purely mechanical instruments, as had been those of Hooke and Wren. If we conclude that the 19th-century instruments were more accurate, we should also recall Forbes' comments upon the question of instrumental accuracy. What, then, was the essential difference between the 17th and 19th centuries that made possible the development of the self-registering observatory? It would appear to have been a difference of degree— the maturation in the 19th century of certain features PAPER 23: THE INTRODUCTION OF SELF-REGISTERING METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS 115. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illu
Size: 1604px × 1558px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorunitedstatesdepto, bookcentury1900, booksubjectscience
