Mr. Symons has devised another rain gauge of so ingenious and interesting a character that it needs only to become generally known among amateur meteorologists to be in universal demand. By its means an observer at a distant window may read off the rain as it falls. It is shown at Fig. 50, where the usual 5-inch funnel surmounts a long glass tube attached to a black board bearing a very open scale marking tenths of an inch in _white_ lines; a white float inside the tube constitutes the index, which rises as the rain increases in quantity. If, as sometimes happens during a thunderstorm, the rainfall is excessive, a second tube on the left permits the measurement of a second inch of rain. It will be obvious that if the _time_ at which the rain begins to fall be noted the _rate_ at which it falls, as well as the quantity, is indicated at sight by this instrument. [Illustration: 51. Beckley’s Pluviograph. Scale about 1/7.] Crossley’s Registering Rain Gauge has a receiving surface of 100 square inches. The rain falling within this area passes through a tube to a vibrating bucket, which sets in motion a train of wheels, and these move the indices on three dials, recording the amount of rain in inches, 10ths, and 100ths. Printed directions are furnished with each instrument, and the simplicity of the mechanism ensures due accuracy. A test measure, holding exactly five cubic inches of water, sent with each gauge, affords the means of checking its readings from time to time. Beckley’s Pluviograph possesses the exceptional merit of recording with equal precision all rainfalls, from a slight summer shower to a heavy storm of rain. It may be placed in a hole in the ground, with the receiving surface raised the standard height of ten inches above its level. Fig. 51 illustrates the construction of the instrument. [Illustration: 52. 53. Stutter’s Self-recording Rain Gauge. Scale about 1/7.] The funnel has a receiving surface of 100 square inches, protected by a lip 1-1/4 inch deep, to retain the splashes. The rain flows into a copper receiving vessel on the right, which, floating in a cistern of mercury, sinks and draws down with it a pencil, which records the event on a white porcelain cylinder moved by a clock. When the receiving vessel is full the syphon comes into action, rapidly drawing off _the whole_ of the water, the vessel rising almost at a bound, the action being recorded by a vertical line on the porcelain cylinder. Two or more cylinders are supplied with each instrument; and, as the pencil marks are readily removed by a little soap and water, a clean one may be always kept at hand for exchange once in every twenty-four hours. The Rev. E. Stutter’s Self-recording Rain Gauge is ingenious, and for a self-recording instrument is very moderate in price, while it efficiently shows the rainfall for every hour in the twenty-four (Figs. 52, 53).