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
=33. Milne's Self-Registering Barometer.=--For a long time a good and
accurate self-recording barometer was much desired. This want is now
satisfactorily supplied, not by one, but by several descriptions of
apparatus. The one first to be described was the design of Admiral Sir A.
Milne, who himself constructed, in 1857, we believe, the original
instrument, which he used with much success. Since that time several of
these instruments have been made, and have performed satisfactorily. The
barometer tube is a syphon of large calibre, provided with a Gay Lussac
pipette, or air-trap; and fitted with a float, a wheel, and a pointer, as
in the "Dial" barometer. The float is attached to a delicate watch-chain,
which passes over the wheel and is adequately counterpoised. Behind the
indicating extremity of the pointer or hand is a projecting point, which
faces the frame of the instrument, and is just within contact with the
registering paper. A clock is applied, and fitted with auxiliary
mechanism, so as to be able to move the mounted paper with regularity
behind the pointer, and at designed equal intervals of time to release a
system of levers and springs, so as to cause the marker to impress a dot
on the paper, either by puncture or pencil-mark. The paper is ruled with
horizontal lines for the range of the mercurial column, and parallel arcs
of circles for the hours. Thus the barometer is rendered self-recording,
by night or day, for a week or more; hence the great value of the
instrument. The clock, index, and registering mechanism are protected from
dust and interference by a glass front, hinged on and locked. As the
temperature of the mercury is not registered, there is fixed to the frame
a Sixe's thermometer to record the maximum and minimum temperatures, which
should be noted at least every twenty-four hours.
Admiral FitzRoy has suggested the name "Atmoscope" for Admiral Milne's
barometer; and he has also termed it a "Barograph." This latter word
appears to be applicable to all kinds of self-registering barometers
hitherto designed. Of the arrangement under consideration Admiral FitzRoy
writes:--"It shows the alterations in tension, or the pulsations, so to
speak, of atmosphere, on a large scale, by hourly marks; and the diagram
expresses, to a practised observer, what the 'indicator card' of a
steam-cylinder shows to a skilful engineer, or a stethescope to a
physician."
[Illustration: Fig. 26.]
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