The record-union., 1898-11-20
POINTERS ON TEMPERATURE.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE CURVE
OF COMFORT.
n Weather Bureau Sharp Dis
courses on Sensible Tenn
perature, Etc.

The following article is taken iron,
the monthly weather review pupHsileu
by the United States Weather buLe ea.,
Washington, d. c., for August Iooo'
being an editorial by Professor Cleee
land Able, editor of the weather NJ
view:
THE editor has been requested "
state what methods should be useu -
order to calculate the sensible tenn
ture when the ordinary wet anu VI
bulb thermometers have been READ
This is a subject upon WHICH, a.
present. there is no agreement among
the authorities, and, indeed, he knows
OF no satisfactory investigation upon
the subject that he could recommend
others to as a model, although for a
hundred years past the subject mas
frequently been referred to, ana u -
quite generally conceded that the Ten
peratures shown by Thermometer u a
very imperfect index to that Sensaeioi'
of heat experienced by human beings
Before attempting to express the SCI
sible temperature in degrees, on Ing
Fahrenheit scale, we are Iorceu "
realize that no two individuals are ike
ly to agree very closely as TO Whetnel
a, given condition of the atmosphere
should be called hot or cold, comIorI-
able or uncomfortable.
IAN extended effort was made IN
Washington in 1928 by J. w. Osborne
to secure a corps of observers VINO
should record several times daily their
individual sensations. From these rec
ords he anticipated that it would be
possible to establish a scale OF terms
closely corresponding to the scale OF
the thermometric degrees, by means OF
which all observers would be able TO
record their sensible temperatures. But
different individuals differed so entire
ly in their sensations on the same day
that nothing satisfactory could be made
out of a years records by twenty or
thirty observers.
1T is a matter of every day expert
ence that even one and the same OBJ
server is affected differently by the
weather under different circumstances,
for instance, before and after eating or
drinking; when clothed warmly or thin
ly; before and after a bath; and SO on
indefinitely. Recently, several COM
plants have been made in the daily
papers, to the effect that Weather Blu
reau predictions of warmer or colder
weather were of no use to the workmen
in the streets of New York because the
Weather Bureau thermometers were
high above the ground on tall build
ings, and a change of one or two de-
grees at those elevations might mean
five or ten degrees in the street below.
Now, the fact is that an observer, or
especially a working man, may suffer
from perspiration, and, perhaps, sun
stroke in the streets, whereas, if he
We're on top of a high building, he
would think it delightful tropical
weather. The occupation in which a
man is engaged is one of the most in
fiuential factors in determining his SEN
sations as to temperature. 1t must be
evident that if we are to attach any
definite conception to the idea Of sem
slble temperature, we must ignore all
the variations and irregularities intro
duced by clothing, by sickness, and by
occupation or work, that is to- say, the
one who observes and the critic for
whom we make predictions must be in
normal health. perfectly quiet and pas
sive, and clothed in the highest pos
sible manner
But even this is not sufficient. There
is almost an infinite variety of normal
physiological structures from the fair
skinned Caucasian to the black-haired
Malay, and the black-skinned negro.
each adapted to some special climate.
our standard of sensible temperatures
must be modified to suit each of these
different natures.
1T is generally supposed that the
blacks enjoy hot climates and the white
race cold climates, but so far as nv
observation goes it is easy to find here
the weather so hot that the blacks do
not enjoy it, or so cold that the whites
do not enjoy it.
1t is probable that there is only a
narrow range of temperature. moisture
and wind that is really perfectly en-
1oyable TO each race
without specifying any particular
formula by which to combine atmo-
Spherlc pressure, moisture and wind
into one .hgare that shall represent the
so-called sensible temperature. T
would prefer requesting those interest
ed IN this subject to simply make a
IClC u lAlS 1dCI whenever tlPy feel
like saying, well this weathe,. is inst
perfect
I have personally made a number of
records of this kind in summer and
winter. Having noted that nv gen
eral sensation is that of a delightful at
mospheric influence. / have then ex
amined the temperature, pressure and
the wind at spot where / happened
to be in order to ascertain, if possible
which was the important meteorolgi
cal element in bringing about this
pleasant condition. All such results
can be charted in a little diagram. On
the left hand side is vertical scale
of relative humidities from zero I'D TO
a hundred, at the bottom is a horizontal
scale of air temperatures, from minus
to ten on the left up to a hundred on
the right.
"At the proper point on this dia-
gram I enter five to indicate the
fact that on one occasion was very
comfortable when a five-n1ile wind
was blowing and the temperature was
so degrees and the relative humidity