Nfit Weather-- Injlrument, ^ II 



III. 



On M. LAZOtVSK!*S new-Barometer, or IV^nthcr Injirument. By a Correfpondeiit. 



To Mr. Nicholson, Editor tf the Philofophical Journal. 

 Sir, Kendal, Jan. 3:, 1798. 



i H E following experimental cffay is too trifling to require an introduftory apology, 

 were it not for the high name of Dr. Hutton, which unavoidably occurs in the courfe of it, 

 as the fubjedl of the prefent communication was firft fuggefted by a paragraph in his Ma- 

 thematical and Philofophical Didtionary, publifhed in 1795. 



When any thing new in fcience is announced, it ought to be made public as generally and as 

 fpeedily as poflTible. In thisTefpe£t Dr. Hutton has only done his duty as a compiler, in bring- 

 ing the Englifli reader acquainted with the fuppofed difcovery of a new inltrument capable of 

 indicating approaching dianges of the weather. On the other hand, when any thing novel is 

 communicated to the lovers of fcience, it is the bufinefs and undoubted right of every 

 friend to enquiry, not to receive the propofal on bare authority, but to fubjefl: it to the 

 teft of ar'Tument and experiment, in order to eftablifh it as a fa£l, or refute it as an error. 



Having premifed thus much in my own vindication, I will in the next place tranfcribc 

 the paragraph alluded to above. " To the foregoing may be added a new fort of Baro- 

 meter, or' Weather Inilrument, by the found of a wire. This is mentioned by M. 

 Lazowflci, in his Tour through Switzerland : it is as yet but in an imperfect: {late, and was 

 lately difcovercd there by accident. It feems that a clergyman, though near-fighted, often 

 amufed himfelf with firing at a mark, and contrived to flretch a wire fo as to draw the 

 mark to him to fee how he had aimed. He obferved that the wire fometimes founded 

 as if it vibrated like a mufical cord ; and that after fuch foundings, a change always enfued 

 in the ftate of the atmofphere, from whence he came to predi6l rain, or fine wea- 

 ther. Sec.*" 



After perufing this fingular narrative, I found myfelf at a lofs in attempting to refer.thc 

 difcovery to any known clafs of phenomena, or to explain it by the afFedtions of the 

 atmofphere, confidered as depending on the barometer, ele£lricity, or even the hygrometer, 

 without admitting a fuppofition, which is not difcountenanced by the preceding report, viz. 

 that one end of the wire was fixed to a frame of wood, while the other end was (Iretched 

 over a nail or metal pin in the fame by a weight. Under thefe circumltances, it appeared 

 not Impoffible, that the wood-work might contrafl: and expand from fuccelTive variations in 

 die air's humidity, thereby putting the pin in motion, which may be fuppofed to fcratch 

 the wire, and give rife to the found in queftion. But with a view to afcertain if a vibratory 

 motion can be excited in metallic firings by any other change in the flate of the atmofphere, 

 I fixed a number of copper and iron wires, in the beginning of April 1795, in an open 

 place : they were different lengths, from three to fix feet, and of different diameters, 

 varving from the thicknefs of a fine thread to the fize of a fmall cord ; they were all 

 ilretchedby metal pins, refembling thofe ufed in a h'arpfichord, and fo difpofed as to make 

 various angles with the meridian and the horizon. The apparatus, being thus completed, 



' See Hutton's Diftionary, article Barometer. 



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