The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-08-12
HOW WEATHER
IS MEASURED


be in charge of the Houston weather
bureau station for Texas. is unpack-
ing the elaborate paraphernalia, rec.
ords and instruments that are to be
used in the new work He hopes to
tion report on Thursday, but as his
assistants have not yet arrived and
the task of preparation is great, he
may be delayed.
Malcolm Sprague, of Atlanta, Ca.
who will be first assistant, left Allan
ia last night and will reach Houston
today, z. E. Spencer, of New Or
leans will leave tonight for this city.
H. H. Martin. of Fort Worth, now at
Galveston, will probably be the first
assistant to arrive. 1t will take some
days to effect the installation of the
delicate recording instruments on the
roof of the Stewart building, where
they must be so arranged and rallied
off that they will lie safe from moles-
ion and so firmly scurd ha hycmfine
tation and so firmly scured that they
will not be destroyed by the weather
they are set to recosd.
There are 81 cotton region stations
in Texas that will report TO this office
and six weather stations that will also
report here, making SO stations I'M
der this from which reports are daily
received and forwarded after the av-
ersges are made. From the cotton sta
tions those in charge report the rain
fall and temperature and from all these
an average is drawn. The list of TIE
Texas cotton stations is as follows:
Ra1linger. Beeville. Byenham, Brown
wood. Corsicana, Cuero. Dallas. Dub
lin. Greenville, Henrietta, Houston,
huntsville Kerrville Lampasas, Long
view. Luling, Mexia, Naco0doches'
Paris. Quanah. San Marcos, Sherman
Temple. Waco, Waxahachie Weather
ford. Wharton.
The cotton station in Houston which
&c in charge of o. o. Ballard will be
continued for the present
Delicate instruments.
The instruments used in record'na
+be weather are delicate, accurate and
interesting.
First of all is the barometer. or a.
the measuring Instruments. this alone
finds place IN the offices. the res
oil being on tho roof, olthoueh Q MN
her of recording instruments are II
tho office The barometer shows ~
pressuro Of the atmos0here. R1norI
from all over the United states ar
received here each DAY and by draw
inc the lines of equal pressure tn
areas of high and low pressure ar
made known and the storm center
) discovered. Whether the pressure i
lowest the storm danger is greatest
A ground glass map of the barome
| tric pressure will be at the cotton eN
: obanoe and the weather observation
as to Temperature will also be show
on it.
} ext in importance are the ther
= mometers. The ordinary dry thei
: mometers show the maximum AM
/: minimum temperatures. Even NOR
: inortant are the wet therometers. Tn
0 difference is a ball of cotton dippe
in water wrapped around the bull
e hut by observing the variations du
: "a this the dew point, the vapor pres
e SIRE and the relative and absolut
l humidity are discovered. These II
strrments, combined. are known a
the hygrometer.
t The first wind instrument is IN
= thermometer. This measures the We
p 1ocitv of the wind. When the win
reaches a velocity of SIS or 80 mile
an hour this is usually blown away
although 1t will record velocity almos
irdefinitelv. Next is the anemoscop
r or wind vane with shows the dire
ton of the wind
c The rain guage, one foot in diam
Z ter is on the roof also. From this e.
" nosed area the water runs into tunn'
II and from the funnel into a set of ba
n anciug cups that empty every time on
e one-hundredth of an inch Of rain ha
5, fallen. the emptying of these cups r.
y cords electrically in the offices tn
amount of rain fall one mark tC
" each HOO. There IS also an eight
l. inch measuring guage which choose
n in a receptacle through funnel an
j. nv n graduated cedar rule the meas'n'
Of ment is made. The cup is one-ten'
the size of the surface area an
= hence a depth of one-tenth of an inc
\ which can be measured in the CT
v means a rainfall of one one-hundreu
Il of on inch outside. Hail ana snow a
recorded by being measured On