Meteorological instruments

Fahrenheit, G.D. (1686—1736). A German physicist who devised meteorological instruments, hydrometers and thermometers. 

POLONIUM. [CAS 7440-02-06], Chemical element, symbol Po, at. no. 84, at. wt. 210 (mass number of the most stable isotope), mp 252,JC. bp 960°C, sp gr 9.4. The element was first identified as an ingredient of pitchblende by Mane Curie in 1898. The element occurs in nature only as a decay product of thorium and uranium, Because of limited availability and high cost, relatively few practical uses for the element have been found, Meteorological instruments for measuring the electrical potential of air have used small quantities of the metal, It is interesting to note that when Mme. Curie first identified polonium, she found that an electroscope was... 

To develop our novel micro-meteorological instruments, we used a large cow-pasture east of Pasadena, which gently sloped up toward the San Gabriel mountains. We had a favorite demonstration of katabatic wind. We had a pole with eight wind vanes spaced about every half meter apart. In the afternoon, the sea breeze caused all the wind vanes to point toward the Pacific Ocean. As sunset approached, first the lowest wind vane on our pole turned and pointed toward the mountain as a shallow current of cold air flowed downhill. Somewhat later the second vane turned, then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and finally the eighth turned as the katabatic wind built up to be a deep gentle flow of cold air. Before sunset, we could almost tell the time of day by how many wind vanes pointed uphill. 

We set up the micro-meteorological instruments just above the high-water line on the beach. Part of our job was to explore the area and provide a written report of its terrain and vegetation. It was only a two-man job to read the meters and write down the values so a couple of us would attend to the instruments and the others could hike, fish or swim (swimmers found the water to be cold). Around the harbor there was an unfamiliar and amazing forest of giant eucalyptus trees. A hike up the dirt road that went inland provided us with a view of the owner s house in the distance. We broke into groups to explore and write descriptions of the nearby land. 

Exposition of the progress within each science suffices to show what has been the utility, in several of them, of the immediate application of calculation and how in all of them it has been used to give a greater precision both to experiment and to observation how much they owe to mechanics, which has provided them with more perfect and more exact instruments the extent to which the discovery of microscopes and meteorological instruments has contributed to the perfection of natural history what this latter science owes to chemistry, which alone has been able to lead it to a deeper knowledge of the objects it deals with, to unveil for it the most intimate secrets of nature and her most essential differences, by showing... 

Fig. 2.41 Riming of meteorological instruments in winter at the Cloud Chemistry Monitoring Station Mt. Brocken (Harz, Germany, 1142 m a.s.l.).

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