﻿4 EQUIPMENT AND WORK OP AN AERO-PHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 



and exact determinations. Even as these lines are written the demand 

 for standard rainfall, temperature, wind, pressure, sunshine, and cloudi- 

 ness records is greater than the skill and industry of the meteorologist, 

 as he is now equipped, can meet. That the " nature and properties of 

 atmospheric air in connection with the welfare of man " is a topic crying 

 aloud for recognition let the vexed questions arising in our daily inter- 

 course answer. The courts call constantly for information, and authen- 

 ticated records are admitted as evidence. Intelligent inquiry for data 

 not available confronts the meteorologist daily. The engineer, be he 

 civil, mining, electrical, or sanitary, knocks with increasing frequency 

 at the door of the aero-physicist. The physician's inquiries are manifold. 

 Averages, extremes, and rates of change affect our well-being ; and yet 

 when he receives all the data now available he receives but a meager 

 portion. With reference to the origin and spread of disease and in all 

 questions of pathogenesis and metabolism, we are but poorly off in 

 knowledge of the relation to these of either the chemical or physical 

 properties of atmospheric air. Rayleigh and Ramsay have just shown 

 in their work on nitrogen how little we know of that very gas which by 

 volume in 100 parts of our atmosphere would be 79.19. With the discov- 

 ery of argon our conception of the part played by nitrogen in organic life 

 must undergo change. This discovery, in the words of a great chemist, Sir 

 Henry Roscoe, is one " of the greatest possible interest and importance, 

 and of special significance as being one brought about by the applica- 

 tion of exact quantitative experiment to the elucidation of the problem 

 of the chemical constitution of our planet." 



Pass now to a description of this proposed aero-physical laboratory 

 and it is perhaps but proper to say that at least two observatory-labora- 

 tories somewhat approximate the equipment here set forth. 



Barometry. 



Standard barometers — Wild-Fuess, Fortin, or Kew. 



Multiplying barographs — Richard, Marvin, or Draper. 



Aneroid, Redier or improved Hicks. 



Statoscope for minute fluctuations of pressure ; — of especial value 

 during thunder-storms and gusts. 



Sundell normal barometer. 



Telebarometers, distant from each other not less than 1,000 feet in a 

 horizontal direction and 500 feet in a vertical direction. This im- 

 plies that the laboratory must be situated on the summit of a hill 

 or mountain, with base stations. Buchan, in his resume of the 

 work done at Ben Nevis, intimates that some very important rela- 

 tions are thus discoverable. 



