SOME REMARKS ON 
201 
is that no bridge has been exposed to more than 30 lbs. per 
square foot; this, moreover, in the country where there are 
tornados capable, it is said, of floating pianos and barrels of 
tar like leaves on the autumn blast. Nevertheless, in the storm 
of the 14th of October, according to the Daily News, the 
pressure on the square- foot was as high as 53 lbs. at the Oxford 
Observatory ; that at Bidstone Observatory, near Liverpool, no 
less than 77 Ibs.,^ or 37|- per cent, in excess of the maximum 
allowed by the Commissioners ; and the paper above quoted then 
proceeded to calculate the pressure on the side of a building 
from these figures. 
That the science of Wind Measurement is not in an 
entirely satisfactory state is thus evident,^ and, since for meteoro- 
logical purposes, continued observations of an accurate nature 
and the accumulation of facts appears to be the surest if not the 
only way by which further progress can be made in this subject, 
the question may now be asked, — what are the methods 
employed ? 
Until about 60 years ago there was, according to Sir W. 
Snow Harris, no record of any other elements of the wind than 
its direction and the time it blew. Dr. Whewell appears to have 
been the first to point out the slight worth of any results which 
did not include one at least of the two other elements, viz., its 
pressure or velocity. Yet from the time of Hooke, 150 years 
^ In order to leave no room for mistake, the author communi- 
cated with the Superintendent of Bidstone Observatory, and found 
this number to be quite correct. 
2 Since this was written the author has come across the follow- 
ing words as the conclusion of a paper upon anemometers, by Mr. 
Eichard H. Curtis, read before the Meteorological Society, May 18, 
1881 : — “ I think I have said enough to show that anemometry is 
not at present in a condition which can be considered satisfactory.” 
