JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. VIII MARCPI 13. 1018 No, (i 



OCEANOGRAPHY. — A7i eleztrical instrument for recording sea- 

 water salinity.^ Frnest E. Weibel and Albert L. Thuras, 

 Bureau of Standards. (Communicated by S. W. Stratton.) 



The modern tendency in physical research is to replace indi- 

 cating instruments by recording instruments wherever possible. 

 This has been especially true in the science of meteorology, 

 where the recent advances have been brought about almost 

 entirely by the remarkable improvements and developments 

 in recording instruments. In the related science of oceanog- 

 raphy there are practically no recording instruments now in 

 general use, except possibly the tide-gage. If meteorology has 

 been so greatly benefited by such instruments, surely in oceanog- 

 raphy, where the changes in the physical properties are so much 

 more regular and therefore more easily interpreted, great ad- 

 vances should be looked for through the addition or substitution 

 of recording instruments. 



A few years ago a recorder using a platinum resistance ther- 

 mometer, ^ giving a continuous record of the surface temperature 

 of the ocean, was designed and constructed at the Bureau of 

 Standards. This instrument has been used successfully on 

 board ship and some very interesting records have been obtained 

 which show the distribution of temperature and thereby indi- 

 cate the location of ocean currents and also give a knowledge 



^Done under the auspices of the Interdepartmental Committee on Oceanog- 

 raphy, subcommittee on instruments, apparatus, and measurements. 



2WAiDNER,DiCKixsox, and Crowe. Bureau of Standards Bull. 10: 267. 1914. 



143 , 



