Science in Short ChaptersWilliams, W. Mattieu (William Mattieu)
Science
Science in Short Chapters
Williams, W. Mattieu (William Mattieu)
Science
Mr. Scott, the Director of the Meteorological Office, tells us that
“The degree of success that has attended our warnings in these islands,
on the average of the last two years, has been that over 45 per cent
have been followed by severe gales; and over 33 per cent in addition
have been followed by wind too strong for fishing-boats and yachts,
though in themselves not severe gales; this gives a total percentage of
success of nearly 80.”
In winter the movements of the air are more decided, and the changes
are often so rapid that the warning sometimes comes too late. With
increased means—_i.e._, more money to cover additional work, and more
stations—better results might be obtained. The United States expend
50,000_l._ a year in weather telegraphy, exclusive of salaries, while
the United Kingdom only devotes 3,000_l._ a year to the same purpose.
The difficulties on our side of the Atlantic are greater than on the
American coasts, on account of the greater changeableness of our
weather—mainly due to the more irregular distribution of land and
water on this side. This, however, instead of discouraging national
effort, should be regarded as a reason for increasing it. The greater
the changes, the greater is the need for warnings, and the greater
the difficulty the greater should be the effort. With our multitude
of coastguard stations and naval men without employment, we ought to
surpass all the world in such a work as this.
Those among our readers who are sufficiently interested in this subject
to devote a little time to it, may make a very interesting weather
scrap-book by cutting out the newspaper chart for each day, pasting it
in a suitable album, and appending their own remarks on the weather at
the date of publication, _i.e._ the day after the chart observations
are made. Such an album would be far more interesting than the postage
stamp and monogram albums that are so abundant.
Parents who desire their children to acquire habits of systematic
observation, and to cultivate an intelligent interest in natural
phenomena, will do well to supply such albums to their sons or
daughters, and to hand over to them the daily paper for this purpose.
The Meteorological Office supplies by post copies of “Daily Weather
Reports” to any subscriber who pays five shillings per quarter in
advance; such subscriptions payable to Robt. H. Scott, Esq., Director
Meteorological Office, 116 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W.
These daily reports are printed on a large double sheet, on one half of
which are four charts, representing separately the four records which
are included in the one smaller newspaper chart—viz., those of the
barometer, the thermometer, the rain-gauge, and the anemometer. On the
other half of the sheet is a detailed separate tabular statement of the
results of observations made at the following stations:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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