37 



METEOROLOGICAL NOTES FOR THE YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 1904. 



The past year, as anticipated in my last report, was dry and warm. The summer months were 

 almost perfect, the temperature being considerably above the average, and the sunshine for the 

 months June, July, August, and September was about 180 hours above the average. During all the 

 SIX months, October, J 903, to Mar;h, 1904, there was a deBciency of sunshine amounting in the 

 aggregate to 110 hours. April had about 10 hours more sun than usual, and May 40 hours less than 

 the normal. The winter was mild ; January and February very wet and stormy. April June and 

 July were very dry. (See tables, pages 38— 39). ' 



The sunshine figures are all from Campbell-Stokes recorders, except the Dawson-Lander recorder 

 at Canterbury, which gave a twelve months' total of only 2 6 hours more than the Stokes. At 

 Tunbridge Wells the Jordnn recorder this year gave 214 hours more than the Stokes, whilst last year 

 it gave over 200 hours below the average, a result accounted for by the observer by the varying 

 sensitiveness cf the ferroprussiate paper used. 



The coming winter will probably be a cold one, with less storms than usual, and it is feared that 

 next summer will not be so brilliant as last, but, on the other hand, it is not expected to be so wet 

 and cold as the previous one. 



We are again able to report progress in the perfecting of the new weather instruments described 

 in Ust year 8 report. The instruments gained the highest award (1st Silver Medal) at the Eoyal 

 Cornwall Polytechnic, and, as a result of the examination at Kew (referred to in our last report) the 

 Director of the National Physical Laboratory has expressed his willingness to issue Kew certificates 

 to instruments of the same pattern which prove equally satisfactory on trial. We have introduced 

 % "^7 [aiD-Kuage and measure, which has met with the approval of Dr. H. E. Mill, of the British 

 Kainfal Organisation, and was illustrated and favourably described in the June number of Symons's 

 aeteorologtral Magazxne. The rain measure has a conical bottom graduated to '005 inch and measures 

 this amount quit« distinoUy, thus easily deciding whether the day must be classed as rainy. Below 

 will be found an illustrated description of the "TEi,LURADioMETEE,"a new instrument for measuring 

 terrestrial radiation and foretelling the weather by indicating the amount of aqueous vapour high up 

 in the atmosphere, and on the next page we reproduce portions of a few actual records given by our 

 instruments. These are on the same scale as the originals, but are in black ink instead of red traces 

 on charts ruled in black. The prints give a very good idea of the remaikable amount of detail 

 recorded by the instruments. The hygrometer record could only be obtained in this way because the 

 wet and dry bulb fails almost entirely at the temperature indicated by the thermograph Mercurial 

 or aneroid barometers do not give any of ths minute detail shown by ihe glycerine. We also repro- 

 duce the sunshine for the past month, as recorded by both the Dawson- Lander and Campbell-Stokes 

 instruments. Our new sunshine recorder has met with universal approval, and has been favourably 

 aesoribed in several meteorological magazines both here and abroad, and instruments have been sent 

 so far aheld is America and New Zealand. 



I regret I have not had time to further trace the gravitation effect of the sun and moon upon oar 

 weather, but suflScient has already been done to show that some definite connection does exist We 

 nave already mentioned that observations once . r twice a day are of little nse, in fact, are often rais- 

 leaaing lo trace the effects of these bodies we need accurate, self-recording instruments, and we 

 neea all the instruments to give records upon exactly the same time scale. With this object in view 

 we are synchronizing all our instrnments. Instead of havinga separate clock in each instrument, one 

 t^l^\i ' P*';''»P8. "ork'hg at a temperature 50' or BO" higher, and under very different conditions 

 to another in the cellar, we have now one clock, kept under careful conditions, in the centre of the 

 building, and this drives electrically all the other instruments, and will in future probably indicate in 

 our shop window the exact losal or Greenwich mean time, corrected astronomically from day to day 

 by means of a small tr«nsit instrument. / >." uo/ 



T-°v,'^°M'!J?'°?'4"!?"^"'^*^®"''"'''''°^°*"®«»PP8a"ntl>6ta'»l66,for kindly sendingtheirreporta. 

 The Medical HaU, Canterbury. ARTHUR LANDER. 



^.n^^,*1 Telluradiometer ^from Lat. TMus. the earth and radiometer) is a new instrument for 

 VhT^lL T"""^ terrestrial radiation and foretelling the weather by indicating the variatrons m 

 the amount of aqueous vapour present in the atmosphere 

 min,m;f^^;:'!H^^ usual method of observing the amount of terrestrial radiation is by comparing the 



ZteXd fr?m rad?Itto„ fnTs'?'*'' "'^'^ °° '^' ^"^ "'"^ '^« "'"i""- °f '"'°'^«^ thermometer 

 ?hat tht /rirmtm'mn^! ^ Stevenson screen A frequent source of error in this method is the fact 

 we are Lwrs.TrnXTwV'^r^K^'"? <*''"*" *'^^ '" "=« screen, and thus 



the rm67nst.nt Th» t if ^S"^ °^'*"' ""^ '"''='"»"" difference between the two thermometers at 



two^enarlt^ theLl t^*"""A°"'ll''-"'"'l'°'' '° ""^ ''^"■P*^' instrument the advantages of these 

 two separate thermometers, and does this without any of the above sources of error. 



free rLiatTonon a°ro,!'hl°/J'M ^^"'f"^ ^'•'.^ °J differential thermometer, with a bulb exposed to 

 L thi^k Poverl^ ,f u^H ° i^ '^ ^J'o"'' '^'^ "'^ """^ •>""> protected from radiation by means of 

 bulbs is an " d!r w£ VI? "°.''f'^"°o""-'i.ahd enamelled white. Inside the stem, between the two 



Uid.'StLsthra/tLTdl"'' '7.*^*""'""'"/''^"«"<=«°f ^ i° ">e two bulbs. It also 



inaicaces the actual difference of temperature of the two bulbs. 



