Abraham Follett Osier. 329 



The school, so far as it encouraged Mr. Osier's fondness for mechanical 

 studies, was advantageous to him, and he became noted for his remark- 

 able ingenuity and great industry. He carried on the printing of the 

 school journal, made an admirable working model of a steam engine, 

 and devoted his leisure more to the study of practical science than to 

 the ordinary amusements of boys. 



On leaving Mr. Hill's school in 1824, when he was 16 years of age, 

 Mr. Osier became at once an assistant to his father, who was carrying 

 on a glass business in Birmingham. Here he worked for about seven 

 years, but in 1831 the business fell entirely into his hands. He at 

 once remodelled it, and his artistic sense, mechanical ability, and 

 originality of mind enabled him to develop it to a remarkable extent. 



Mr. Osier's attention appears to have been first drawn to Meteo- 

 rology by the Council of the Philosophical Institution of Birmingham 

 purchasing what was, at that time, 1835, a complete set of meteoro- 

 logical instruments ; these enabled the observer to do little more than 

 register, at certain times, temperature, barometric pressure, amount of 

 moisture, and the direction of the wind. Mr. Osier at once perceived 

 that really to advance the subject of Meteorology, observations of a 

 different character were required, and that the great thing needed was 

 to obtain continuous records of atmospheric changes, and he imme- 

 diately applied himself to contriving and constructing a self-registering 

 anemometer and rain gauge. In this he was very successful. 



The self-recording anemometer which he constructed received the 

 varying wind-pressure on a plate of known area, supported on springs 

 and kept at right angles to the direction of the wind by means of a 

 vane. The degree to which this plate was pressed back upon the 

 springs by each gust of wind was registered in pounds avoirdupois per 

 square foot by a pencil on a sheet of paper graduated in hours, and 

 moved forward at a uniform rate by means of a clock. On the same 

 sheet the direction of the wind was recorded. This was done by 

 means of a vane, and its movements were conveyed by an ingenious 

 contrivance to a pencil which moved transversely upon a scale of 

 horizontal lines representing the points of the compass. The curve 

 thus drawn gave a continuous record of the direction of the wind. In 

 addition to these, the rainfall was also recorded on the same paper. 

 To obtain this result the rain was collected in a funnel, the top of 

 which had a known area, and flowed into a vessel supported on a bent 

 lever with a counterbalancing weight, and, as the water accumulated, 

 it caused the vessel to descend, and this movement was registered by 

 a pencil, which produced a line on a part of the paper that was ruled 

 with a scale of fractions of an inch. When the limit of the capacity 

 of the counterbalanced vessel was reached it discharged its contents 

 automatically, and the pencil returned to the zero line. 



