The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Introduction of Self-Registering
Meteorological Instruments, by Robert P. Multhauf

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Title: The Introduction of Self-Registering Meteorological Instruments

Author: Robert P. Multhauf

Release Date: May 22, 2010 [EBook #32482]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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CONTRIBUTIONS FROM

THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY:

PAPER 23

THE INTRODUCTION OF SELF-REGISTERING

METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS

_Robert P. Multhauf_

THE FIRST SELF-REGISTERING INSTRUMENTS 99

SELF-REGISTERING SYSTEMS 105

CONCLUSIONS 114

_The Introduction of_ SELF-REGISTERING METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS

_Robert P. Multhauf_

_The development of self-registering meteorological instruments
began very shortly after that of scientific meteorological
observation itself. Yet it was not until the 1860's, two centuries
after the beginning of scientific observation, that the
self-registering instrument became a factor in meteorology._

_This time delay is attributable less to deficiencies in the
techniques of instrument-making than to deficiencies in the
organisation of meteorology itself. The critical factor was the
establishment in the 1860's of well-financed and competently
directed meteorological observatories, most of which were created
as adjuncts to astronomical observatories._

THE AUTHOR: _Robert P. Multhauf is head curator of the department
of science and technology in the United States National Museum,
Smithsonian Institution._

The flowering of science in the 17th century was accompanied by an
efflorescence of instrument invention as luxurious as that of science
itself. Although there were foreshadowing events, this flowering seems
to have owed much to Galileo, whose interest in the measurement of
natural phenomena is well known, and who is himself credited with