May 28, 1914] 
NATURE 
designed in connection with upper air research. I 
should like to mention two of them. M. Teisserenc 
de Bort made an apparatus for collecting air at great 
altitudes. In this instrument (Fig. 13) a small weight 
is released electrically, when a lever connected with a 
barometer makes contact with a metal stud; the 
guillotine drops on to the finely drawn out end of a 
glass tube, which has been exhausted and sealed up; 
thus air admitted to the tube. As the balloon 
is 
Fic. r2.—Duquervain theodolite for observing pilot 
balloons. 
ascends higher the baronieter moves the lever still 
further until it makes contact with another stud 
which allows an electric current to flow through a 
platinum wire coiled round the remaining part of 
the fine end of the tube, thereby melting the glass 
and sealing up the tube. M. Teisserenc de Bort 
collected samples of air in this way. 
The second piece of apparatus which I will describe 
was designed by Dr. Assmann (Fig. 14). It is meant 
to measure the 
temperature of 
the air over 
the sea, desert 
countries, or in 
Po 
vite 
E 
A 
Fic, 13.—Teisserenc de Bort’s. apparatus for col- 
lecting air at great altitudes. 
ordinary way. An 
meter completes an 
Arctic or Ant- 
arctic regions, 
when there is 
little chance of 
recovering . the 
balloon. The 
balloon is 
Mae uh: ed 
through  theo- 
dolites, and its 
height, from 
fiw the to 
minute is cal- 
culated in’ the 
arm attached to a_ thermo- 
electric circuit. at a pre- 
determined temperature, say at freezing point; the 
electric current explodes a firework hung below the 
balloon, and the observer sees a puff of smoke as soon 
as the balloon has entered a layer of air in which 
the temperature is at the freezing point. Other fire- 
works can be exploded in turn at predetermined tem- 
peratures, and it can be arranged that the fireworks 
connected with the various temperatures should show 
NO. 2326, VOL. 93]| 
! . & 
smoke of various colours, so that in the event of any 
particular firework accidentally failing to explode the 
colour of the next puff of smoke will show the tem- 
perature. 
In the first part of this address I gave a short history 
of upper air research up to the year 1896. Before 
that time the research 
had been tentative and 
spasmodic; susequently 
it has been regular and 
organised. In 1896 the 
International Meteoro- 
logical Committee _con- 
stituted an auxiliary 
committee under the 
name of the  Inter- 
national Commission for 
Scientific Aeronautics, 
with Prof. Hergesell, of 
Strassburg, as its presi- 
dent. It was agreed 
that simultaneous ob- | 
servations should be 
made with kites, regis- 
tering balloons, and 
manned balloons. The 
first of these  inter- 
national ascents was 
made on November 14, 
1896, and on that 
day three registering 
balloons and 6 five 
manned balloons 
ascended in France, ., f 
Gar 2 eae iG. 14.—Assmann’s apparatus for 
aET many, anc % uSSIa. Measuring temperature at great 
Since that time the heights over the sea. 
werk has gradually ex- 
tended; and at the present time international ascents 
are made on the first Thursday in each month, on 
three successive days three times a year, and once a 
year balloons are sent up on each day for a week. 
Meanwhile congresses have been held at Strassburg 
in 1898; at Paris in 1900; at Berlin in 1902; at St. 
Petersburg in 1904; at Milan in 1906, at Monaco in 
1909; and at Vienna 
in 1912. he next 
conference is to be 
held in England in 
1915, and it is to be 
hoped that in this 
country we shall do 
as much, for -:our 
meteorological guests 
as they have done for 
us when. we have 
visited them. 
Meanwhile the 
work of exploring 
the upper air has 
been __ progressing. 
steadily, and other 
countries joined. the | 
three which began 
Fic. 15.—Sounding balloon at _Ditcham, 
the research. .In this 
: January 25, 1907. 
country, however, we 
were again behind. 
In 1903, the year after Mr. Dines had com- 
menced flying kites, Mr. P. Y. Alexander ob- 
tained the apparatus for registering balloon 
ascents, and about half a dozen balloons were 
sent up from Bath under the superintendence of 
Dr. Mansergh Varley. Nothing more was done in 
this country until 1907, when Mr. Dines had made 
the instrument that I have described. The first record 
to come back was from a balloon which Mr. Dines 
