The Art of Living in Australia: Together with Three Hundred Australian Cookery Recipes and Accessory Kitchen Information by Mrs. H. WickenMuskett, Philip E.
Science
The Art of Living in Australia: Together with Three Hundred Australian Cookery Recipes and Accessory Kitchen Information by Mrs. H. Wicken
Muskett, Philip E.
Australia -- Social life and customs; Cooking, Australian; Health; Hygiene
ANY INFORMATION WITH REGARD TO HUMIDITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE ALSO, WILL BE
OF GREAT VALUE. ALL PHYSICIANS ARE OF OPINION THAT A HIGH TEMPERATURE,
COMBINED WITH MOISTURE, IS VERY IRRITATING TO THE LUNGS OF THOSE
AFFECTED WITH PULMONARY DISEASE.
Before setting forth the different answers in response to this, it will
be desirable to refer briefly to the term "humidity." The humidity of
the atmosphere is defined as the degree of its approach to saturation.
Air completely saturated is represented by 100, and that absolutely
free of vapour by 0. As a matter of fact, however, the latter never
occurs; even in the driest regions of Arabia a humidity of 10 per cent.
is almost unknown. For its estimation the Wet and Dry Bulb thermometers
are employed. These consist of two ordinary thermometers. One has its
bulb exposed so as to register the temperature of the air. The bulb of
the other is covered with muslin; this latter material being kept wet
through its connection with a cotton wick dipping into a vessel of
water. The water ascends from this vessel by capillary attraction,
spreads over the muslin, and evaporates quickly or slowly,
according to the dryness or moistness of the atmosphere. Thus when the
air is driest the difference between the two thermometers will be
greatest, and, on the contrary, when it is completely saturated with
moisture the two readings will be almost identical.
New South Wales.--A considerable part of the colony, forming the
western plains, is subject to great heat, caused, no doubt, by the
sun's great power on treeless plains, and the almost total absence of
cooling winds; yet, although in summer the temperature here frequently
rises over 100 degrees, and sometimes up to 120 degrees, owing to the cold
at night and in winter the mean temperatures are not greater than those of
corresponding latitudes in the northern hemisphere. This region of the
colony is remarkably dry, and stock of all kinds thrive well and are
very free from disease. At Bourke, the driest place in the colony, the
humidity for a long series of years is--in the spring 51 degrees, in the
summer 49 degrees, in the autumn 61 degrees, and in the winter 74 degrees.
At Sydney the humidity in the Spring is 69 degrees, in the summer 70
degrees, in the autumn 79 degrees, and in the winter 79 degrees.
Victoria.--The humidity of the air of Melbourne is low, the average
being 71 per cent. In the summer it falls to 65, and on hot days is
generally very low. The characteristic of our hot weather is that it is
usually extremely dry; the exceptions are very few, and occur in the
late Spring and early autumn during thundery, muggy weather. On the
hottest days, with north winds, the dryness makes the heat much more
endurable, and the humidity frequently falls to between 30 and 40 per
cent.
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