A Treatise on Meteorological Instruments: Explanatory of Their Scientific Principles, Method of Construction, and Practical UtilityNegretti, Enrico Angelo Lodovico
Science
A Treatise on Meteorological Instruments: Explanatory of Their Scientific Principles, Method of Construction, and Practical Utility
Negretti, Enrico Angelo Lodovico
Meteorological instruments; Meteorology; Scientific apparatus and instruments
In estimating the value of the indications of this hygrometer, it should
be borne in mind that the scale adopted by Leslie was _millesimal_, that
is to say, from the freezing to the boiling-point of water was divided
into a thousand parts; ten millesimal degrees are therefore equal to one
of the scale of Celsius.
103. DANIEL'S HYGROMETER.
This instrument was invented about the year 1820, by Professor Daniel, the
distinguished author of _Meteorological Essays_; and it entirely
superseded all hygrometers depending upon the absorption of moisture. The
form of the instrument is shown in fig. 77.
[Illustration: Fig. 77.]
It consists of a glass tube, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter of
bore, bent twice at right angles, and terminated, at each end, in a bulb
about one inch and a quarter in diameter. In one limb of the tube is
enclosed a delicate thermometer, which descends to the centre of the
adjoining bulb, which is about three-parts filled with sulphuric ether.
All the other parts of the tube are carefully freed from air, so that they
are occupied by the vapour of the ether. This bulb is generally made of
black glass; the other is transparent, but covered with a piece of fine
muslin. The support for the tube has a thermometer attached, which shows
the temperature of the external air. The tube can be removed from the
stand, and the parts are made to pack, with a necessary phial of ether, in
a small box, which can easily be got into the pocket.
_How to use the Hygrometer._--This instrument gives the dew-point by
direct observation, which must be made in the following manner:--Having
fixed the tube upon the stand, with the bulbs vertically downward, the
ether is all caused to flow into the lower ball by inclining the tube. The
temperature of the air is noted by the exposed thermometer. Then some
ether is poured, from a dropping tube fitting into the neck of the phial,
upon the muslin-covered bulb. The rapid evaporation of this ether cools
the bulb and causes condensation of the ethereal vapour in its interior.
This gives rise to rapid evaporation of the ether in the lower bulb,
whereby its temperature is greatly reduced. The air in the vicinity is
deprived of its warmth by the cold bulb, and is soon cooled to the
temperature at which it is perfectly saturated with the vapour which it
contains. Cooled ever so little below this temperature, some aqueous
vapour will be condensed, and will form a dew upon the black-glass bulb.
At the first indication of the deposit of dew the reading of the internal
thermometer is taken: which is the dew-point.
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