VIII. On the automatic registration of magnetometers, and other meteorological instruments, by photography

Abstract

During the period of the summer recess, the system of automatic meteorological registration by photography has been rendered complete by the adaptation of the barometer and thermometer to the apparatus previously described. It having been found a matter of much difficulty to obtain a photographic base-line from the lamp already described as being placed near the magnet, the idea naturally arose that the base-line might be simultaneously described by a second lamp placed on the opposite side of the cylinder, as represented in fig.1, Plate V. A pencil of light proceeding from this lamp through a horizontal slit in the chimney is received by a cylindrical lens placed, as before, horizontally, and the focal line of light thus formed is allowed to pass through a corresponding slit in the covering of the cylinder. A small section only of this focal line is transmitted through a vertical slit in a piece of thin sheet brass attached to the stand on which the cylinders rest, and placed very near the surface of the outer cylinder. A line thus described maybe seen in Plate VIII. fig. 4,and Plate IX. figs. 6, 7, 8, and the same light has been by the following means rendered available for the registration of the barometer. A siphon barometer has been con­structed with a column of mercury a little more than one inch in diameter, Plate VI. figs. 1 and 2. As the weight of an entire column of this size would be inconvenient, and as it would be difficult to obtain a tube more than three feet long of so large a bore, both ends of which were of the same internal area, two adjacent short pieces of a very nearly cylindrical tube have been united to the extremities of a tube of small bore, and form the ends of the instrument which contain the surfaces of the mercury.A wooden cap about two inches high is fitted to the open end of the tube, at each end of which are fixed three small friction rollers, placed radially, vertical, and equidistant from each other. The stem of a glass float, having a bulb about half an inch in diameter, resting on the surface of the mercury, passes up vertically between these fric­tion rollers, by which the free vertical movement of the float is much facilitated. At the upper end of the stem is a cap containing a small grooved roller. The barometer tube is attached to a board by two clamps, so as to be capable of being raised or lowered at pleasure, and the bend at the lowest part rests on a piece of wood, which is likewise capable of a vertical adjustment. Another piece of wood, about half an inch thick, two inches wide, and five or six long, is made to slide horizontally between two slips fixed to the surface of the board at such a height that the top of the float may be opposite the middle point between them. To this sliding piece a pulley about three inches in diameter, having a fixed axis about 3 inches long, is attached by a suitable support; to this pulley two slender wooden arms are attached, one thirty inches, the other five inches long, and fixed at right angles to each other. A piece of wire with an adjustible balancing weight is fixed in the pulley in such a position that the axis of the pulley may be the centre of gravity of its appendages. The long arm passes through a slit in the stand of the apparatus, and carries a black paper screen with a vertical slit in front of the horizontal aperture in the cover above described (see Plate V. fig. 2); and is so placed that the point at which the slits cross each other is exactly thirty inches from the axis of the pulley. The short arm rests on the roller at the end of the float, and is marked at the distances of 3, 3.75, and 5 inches from the axis of the pulley. The mark which rests on the float may be changed at pleasure by sliding horizontally the piece to which the pulley is attached; and accordingly as the marks are respectively placed in the above position, it is evi­dent that the movement of the point of light transmitted through the slit in the moveable screen will be five, four, or three times the variation in the height of the column of mercury; and thus by the same lamp the base-line and the barometric curve are traced out. Of this, fig. 4, Plate VIII. and fig. 7, Plate IX. are given as examples. In these it may be remarked that both the lines are so sharply defined, that by ap­plying a scale divided into Troths of an inch, the position of both may be read to half a division, which is equivalent to 0.001 inch of mercury, if the first scale be adopted, which has been the case in these instances. A small weight suspended by a string passing round a groove in the pulley keeps the short arm in contact with the float, by a constant pressure. There being an annulus of mercury rather more than one-fourth of an inch wide between the tube and the float, the effect of capillarity is so much reduced as to exert scarcely any influence on the variations of the column, the weight of which is sufficient to over­ come the small amount of friction that exists in the various parts, without sensibly influencing its variation, and consequently the barometric curve is frequently continuous, and not interrupted by jerks. In one of the registers, not introduced for want of space, the passage of an aerial wave is recorded, equivalent to less than 1/300th of an inch of mercury, the duration of which was about 4 1/2 minutes.