WEATHER BUREAU. 129 



E, Instrument Division, have been issued for this purpose, and, in an 

 effort to secure a less expensive gauge that would assist observers, an 

 8-inch gauge has been fitted with an attachment that automatically 

 shifts the flow to the measuring tube at the beginning of the insur- 

 aiice period and out of the tube at the end of the period. 



The investigations in anemometry by Messrs. Fergusson and 

 Covert, begun in 1922, are nearly completed. Final corrections for 

 the present standard and many other patterns have been determined 

 throughout the range of the natural wind for the first time in the 

 history of anemometry, and from a group of instruments of an 

 improved pattern it is expected that there will be selected a new 

 standard whose indications will be more nearly constant than those 

 of the present standard. This work has been made possible by the 

 kind cooperation of the Bureau of Standards. 



The advice of the Weather Bureau is being sought with increasing 

 frequency regarding ways and means for protection against light- 

 ning, which inquiries are largely due to the extensive circulation of 

 Farmers' Bulletin No. 842, " Modern Methods of Protection Against 

 Lightning." 



During the past year and a half Roy N. Covert has represented 

 the Weather Bureau on a sectional committee of the American 

 Engineering Standards Committee, which is developing a standard 

 for the protection of buildings and other property against lightning. 

 The American Institute of Electrical Engineers and Bureau of 

 Standards are acting as sponsors for this standard, which should 

 be available for public use during 1924. As stated in the introduc- 

 tion to the standard, its purpose is to promote the prevention of 

 fire and other loss from lightning by directing attention to the best 

 available means of protection. Practically all organizations inter- 

 ested in protection against lightning are represented on the sec- 

 tional committee. 



The exhibit work of the Weather Bureau is now merged with 

 the general exhibit work of the department, exhibits being made 

 largely by subjects rather than by bureaus. Under the present plan 

 a committee is created for each major exhibit, with a representative 

 from each bureau of the department, to bring before the general 

 committee the facts that his bureau can contribute. The chief of 

 the Instrument Division is the Weather Bureau representative on 

 committees now preparing the 1923-24 exhibits. 



SOLAR RADIATION INVESTIGATIONS. 



As in past years, the intensity of solar radiation at normal inci- 

 dence has been measured on days when the sky was free from clouds 

 at Washington, D. C. ; Madison, Wis.; and Lincoln, Nebr. The 

 total radiation received on a horizontal surface directly from the sun 

 and diffusely from the sky has also been continuously recorded by 

 automatic instruments. The results have been published each month 

 in the Monthly Weather Review. 



A thermoelectric pyrheliometer has been devised and constructed 

 in the Weather Bureau machine shop for use in connection with a 

 recording voltmeter to obtain continuous records, not only of the 

 total radiation received on a horizontal surface but also of the in- 



