234 



WITH SCOTT : THE SILVER LINING 



Simpson and Bowers let off. The procedure was now more 

 elaborate, and in place of merely testing wind direction the 

 balloons carried up a meteorograph and miles of fine silk 

 thread. 



In a small aluminium cylinder about eight inches long is 

 contained a small aneroid (for pressure and height) and a small 

 two-metal thermometer. Levers attached to these scratch two 

 fine lines on a copper plate, and by suitable enlargement these 



Copper.plaf"e-> 



lines give the temperatures at varying heights. The black 

 silk unwinds like a Penelope thread and trails after the balloon. 

 After some minutes a fuse burns through and liberates the 

 balloon. The meteorograph falls to the ground with its record. 

 Theoretically all one had to do was to follow the silk and 

 pick up the instrument. Actually it led one to the water's 

 edge and there vanished, or crossed the seracs and crevasses 



