in a fixed louvre shelter, but by means of a Ventilating apparatus drew currents of fresh air from below into the shelter, where they circulated rapidly and passed out. In Germany, since 1885, Dr Assmann has developed the apparatus known as the ventilated psychrometer, in which the dry-bulb thermometer is placed within a double shelter of thin metallic tubing, and the air is drawn in rapidly by means of a small ventilating fan. In the observations made by Abbe on the cruise of the “Pensacola” to the West Coast of Africa, the dry- and wet-bulb thermometers were enclosed within bamboo tubes and rapidly whirled. The inside of the wet-bulb tube was kept wet, so that its surface, being cooled by evaporation, could not radiate injuriously to the thermometer. In the system of exposure adopted by the U.S. Weather Bureau the dry and wet bulbs are whirled by a special apparatus fixed within the louvred shelter, which is about 312 ft. cube, and is placed far enough above the ground or building to ensure free exposure to the wind. In using the whirling and Ventilating methods it is customary to take a reading after whirling one minute, and a second reading at the end of the second minute, and so on until no appreciable changes are shown in the thermometer. Of course in perfectly calm weather these methods can only give the temperature of the air for the exact locality of the thermometer. On the other hand, when a strong wind is blowing the indicated temperature is an average that represents the long narrow stream of air that has blown past the thermometer during the few minutes that are necessary in order that its bulb may obtain approximately the temperature of the air.
Change of Zero.—All thermometers having glass bulbs, especially those of cylindrical shape, are sensitive to changes of atmospheric pressure. The freezing-point, determined under a barometric pressure of 30 in., or at sea-level, stands higher on the glass tube than if it had been determined under a lower pressure on a mountain top. Therefore delicate thermometers, when transported to great heights, or even during the very low pressure of a storm centre, read too low and need a correction for pressure. The zero-point also changes with time and with the method of treatment that the bulb has received as to temperature. Owing to the slow adjustment of the molecules of the glass bulb to the state of stable equilibrium, their relations among themselves are disturbed whenever the bulb is freshly heated. At this time the freezing-point is temporarily depressed to an amount nearly proportional to the heating. The normal method of treatment consists in first determining the boiling-point of the thermometer, and, after a few minutes, the freezing-point. If this method is uniformly followed the two fiducial points will stay in permanent relation to each other. A thermometer that has been used for many years by a faithful meteorological observer has almost inevitably been going through a steady series of changes; in the course of ten years its freezing-point may have risen by 2° or 3° F., and, moreover, it changes by Fully a tenth of a degree between summer and winter. The only way completely to eliminate this source of error from meteorological work is to discard the mercurial thermometer altogether; but instead of adopting that course, the use is generally recommended of thermometers whose bulbs are made of a special glass, upon which heating and cooling have comparatively very little influence. Any argument as to secular changes in the temperature of the atmosphere is likely to be greatly weakened by the unknown influence of this source of error, as well as by changes in the methods of exposure and in the hours of observation.
Barometer.—The barometer (q.v.) indicates the elastic pressure prevailing in gas or liquid at the surface of the mercury in the open tube or cistern, provided that the fluid at that point is in a state of quiet relative to the mercury.
Any motion of the air will have an influence upon the reading quite independently of the prevailing elastic pressure. The pressure within a mass of gas at any point is the summation of the effects due to the motions of the myriad molecules of the gas at that point; it is the kinetic energy of the molecules striking against each other and the sides of the enclosure, which in this case is the surface of the mercury in the cistern of the instrument. If the barometer moves with respect to the general mass of the gas there is a change in the pressure on the mercurial surface, although there may be none in the general mass of the free gas, and a barometer giving correctly the pressure of the air at rest within a room will give a different indication if the instrument or the air is set in rapid motion so that the air strikes violently against it. If the barometer moves with the air it will indicate the elastic pressure within the air. When the wind blows against an obstacle the air pressure is increased slightly on the windward side and diminished on the leeward side. It is thus obvious that in determining the pressure within the free atmosphere the exposure of the barometer must be carefully considered. The influence of a gale of wind is to raise the elastic pressure within a room whose window faces to the windward, but to lower the pressure if the window faces to the leeward. The influence of the draught up chimney, produced by the wind blowing over its summit, is to lower the pressure within the room. The maximum effect of the wind in raising the pressure is given by the formula. P−P0＝0.000 038 3 × V2, where the pressure is given in inches and the velocity in miles per hour. This amounts to about one-tenth of an inch in a 50-m. wind, and to nearly four-tenths in a 100-m. wind. The diminution by a leeward window or a draught up .chimney is usually less than this amount. This alteration in pressure, due to the local effect of wind, does not belong to the free atmosphere but to the method of exposure of the barometer, and can be eliminated only by methods first described by Abbe in 1882: it is a very different matter from the general diminution of pressure in the atmosphere produced by the movement of the wind over a rotating earth and by the centrifugal force within a vortex. The latter is an atmospheric phenomenon, independent of instruments and locality, which in hurricanes and tornadoes may amount to several inches of the mercurial column. It is, however, quite common to find in the continuous records of pressure during a hurricane evidence of the fact that the low pressure due to the hurricane and the special diminution due to the exposure of the barometer are combined together, so that when the calm centre of a hurricane passes over a station the pressure temporarily rises by the amount due to the sudden stoppage of the wind and the local exposure effect.
The other sources of error that give rise to discrepancies in meteorological work relate to the temperature of the instrument, the sluggishness of the movement of the mercury, and the inevitable large secular changes in the correction for capillarity, due principally to the changes in the condition of the surfaces of the glass and the mercury, especially those that are exposed to the open air. The international comparisons of barometers show that discrepancies exist between the best normals or standards, and that ordinary barometers must always be compared with such standards at the temperatures and pressures for which they are to be used.
Anemometer.—The wind is measured either by means of its pressure against any obstacle or by revolving apparatus that gives some idea of the velocity of its movement. The pressure is supposed to interest the engineer and navigator, but the velocity is the fundamental meteorological datum; in fact, the pressure of the wind varies with the nature of the obstacle, the method of exposure, the density of the air, and even the mass of rain carried along with it.
Pressure anemometers date from the pendulous tablet devised by Sir Christopher Wren about 1667, and such pressure plates continue to be used in an improved form by Russian observers. Normal pressure plates are used at a few English and Continental stations. The windmill anemometers devised by Schober and Woltmann were modified by Combes and Casella so as to make an exceedingly delicate instrument for laboratory use; another modification by Richard is extensively used by French observers. In the early part of the 19th century Edgeworth devised and Robinson perfected a windmill system in which hemispherical cups revolved around a vertical axis, and these have come into general use in both Europe and America. Many studies have been made of the exact ratio between the velocity of the wind and the rotations of the Robinson anemometer. The factor 3 is usually adopted and incorporated into the mechanism of the apparatus, but in ordinary circumstances this factor is entirely too large, and the recorded velocities are therefore too large. The whirling cups do not revolve with any simple relation to the velocity of the wind, even when this is perfectly steady. The relation varies with the dimensions of the cups and arms and the speed of the wind, but especially with the steadiness or gustiness of the wind. The exact ratio must always be determined experimentally for each specific type of instrument; in most instruments in actual use the factor for steady wind varies between 2·4 and 2·6. When the wind is gusty the moment of inertia of the moving parts of the instrument necessitates an appreciable correction; thus, when the gust is at its height the revolving parts receive an impetus that lasts after the gust has gone down, so that the actual velocity of the cups is too high. For this reason, also, comparisons and studies of anemometers made in the irregular natural winds of a free air are unsatisfactory. For the average natural and gusty winds at Washington, D.C., and on Mount Washington, N.H., and the small type of Robinson's anemometer used in the U.S. Weather Bureau Service, Professor C. F. Marvin deduced the table (see p. 275) for reduction from recorded to true velocity. This table involves the moment of inertia of the revolving parts of the instrument and the gustiness of the winds at Washington, and will therefore, of course, not apply strictly to other types of instruments or winds, for which special studies must be made.
About 1842 a committee of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences experimentally determined, for a large variety of chimney caps, or cowls, or hoods, the amount of suction that produces the draught up a chimney, and shortly afterwards a similar committee made a similar investigation at Philadelphia (see Proc. Amer. Acad. i. 307, and Journal of Franklin Institute, iv. 101). These investigations showed that the open end of the chimney, acting as an obstacle in the wind, is covered by a layer of air moving more rapidly than the free air at a little distance, and that therefore between this layer and the aperture of the chimney there is a space
