A NEW AND IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR PROGNOSTICATING THE WEATHER
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Chaussée d'Antin, in the Empire of France,
and 10, Sackville Street, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex,.
Patent Agent, for the Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED INSTRUMENT
FOR PROGNOSTICATING THE WEATHER."-A communication from Jules
Malacrida and Pierre Boudet, residing at No. 18, Chaussée d'Antin,.
Paris, aforesaid, Merchants..
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition
and Declaration, on the 17th November 1868, pursuant to the 9th.
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18,.
Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 10, Sackville.
Street, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send
greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "A NEW AND
IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR PROGNOSTICATING THE WEATHER," a communication
from Jules Malacrida and Pierre Boudet, two persons resident at No. 18,
Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, aforesaid, Merchants, and have petitioned Her
Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and made solemn Declaration
that it is a communication.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, reference being, had
to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters marked thereon, that
is to say:
The Invention communicated to me relates to an optical instrument
for the prognostication of the weather a day in advance, it indicates the
points of frost and of thaw, foretels inundations, and shows the direction
of the wind. It bears no relationship with the thermometer, the
hygrometer, or the cistern or aneroid barometer. It is an instrument
of an entirely new description based upon the principle that the
molecules of the air are condensed or expanded under the influence of
variations of temperature.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents the, motor or main
organ of the instrument; Fig. 2 is the dial with its divisions and index
needle. The instrument is composed of the motor which imparts motion
to the index needle, and of a dial which serves to determine the results
afforded by the said index needle.
The motor (Fig. 1) is composed of two wooden strips or thin blades F
of different essence stuck one upon the other as shown by the dotted
lines in the Drawing, the one operating the movement of attraction,
which is called the positive, and the other operating the movement of
repulsion, which is called the negative. These strips or thin blades of
wood are curvilinear and assume the form of an arc of a circle, one of
the extremities of this arc is fixed to a square A held by screws on to
a brass disk E, the other extremity is loose and moveable, it is connected
by a silken thread B passing round one of the two grooves of a pulley L
with an arbor Q forming the axis of the index needle C; the attraction
of the motor is counterbalanced by a spring K fixed upon the brass
disk E, and connected by another silken thread D with the arbor Q,

page_text: round the second groove of which it is wound; the arbor or axis Qof
the needle is supported by two pivots and a little bar R fixed upon the
brass disk E. As the molecules of air are expanded or condensed in
volume the strips or thin blades of wood F are acted upon, the axis
of the needle Q then undergoes a rotation movement in one direction
or the other, and this rotation is indicated on the dial by the said needle.
The dial of the instrument (Fig. 2) analagous to that of barometers
generally differs however from these in the mode of division adapted to
determine the various phenomena indicated by the needle. The dial
is divided into 240 degrès inscribed on a circle. Each arc of circle of
20 degrees corresponds to a determinate change of weather, consequently
the instrument, comprising as it does 12 arcs of circle of 20 degrees each,
indicates 12 different changes of weather which may be observed in the
course of a single day, especially in winter under the influence of frost
or of thaw followed by showers. The dial further carries 12 figures
inscribed around the circle of degrees indicating frost and thaw, finally,
at the centre of the dial is figured a compass card by which to ascertain
the direction of the wind. Thus the index needle is at the same time
able to indicate change of weather, frost or thaw, and the direction of
the wind.
The instrument is placed in a wooden or metallic box, of which Figs. 3
and 4 represent the back; Fig. 3 with ears E and a hinge E' so as to
be able to fix the box on a support and to have access at the back, and
Fig. 4 without these accessories. The back is furnished with four
openings P corresponding with the four cardinal points of the dial
compass card, and through which the air may exert its influence on
the strips or thin blades of wood; to screen these strips or blades of
wood from such influence, these openings may be more or less closed by
a metallic disk placed in front of the back of the box and figured by
the dotted lines in Fig. 3. A rotation movement is imparted to this
disk by means of a stud V forming prolongation of its axis (Fig. 3)
and carrying a needle T, the object of which is to graduate the closing
by means of the scale X, or fixed upon the disk itself fronting the scale
(Fig. 4.)
Figs. 5 and 6 represent the front and side views of the instrument
without a dial placed and disposed in another manner inside a metallic
box. The wooden box having the property of screening the instrument
from moisture by absorbing that which might penetrate when the box

page_text: is a metallic one, a piece of charcoal C should be put in contact with
the fixed extremity of the wooden strips or thin blades; this bit of
charcoal covered over with gum lack has the property of absorbing by
aspiration at the point where it is in contact with the strips or blades
of wood the moisture with which these might be impregnated.
Figs. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 represent different applications
of the instrument or various combinations of wheelwork and organs for
transmitting the movement of the motor to the index needle.
Figs. 15, 16, 17, and 18 are apparatus merely intended to answer
the purpose of demonstrating the theory on which is based this
Invention.
Having thus fully described the said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I would have it to be clearly understood
that I do not intend to confine myself to the exact forms, means of
transmission, or other such like dispositions hercin above described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, as the same may be modified
without departing from the principle of the said Invention, but what I
claim and wish to secure by the said Letters Patent is, the application
of wood as a means whereby to determine or prognosticate the
weather, and more especially an instrument for prognosticating the
weather composed of two strips or thin blades of wood of different
essence stuck one upon the other, and forming the are of a circle, one
of the extremities of which is fixed whilst the other either recedes or
draws closer into the said fixed extremity under the influence of the
expansion or condensation of the molecules of the air, and acting upon
the axis of an index needle.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of Novem-
ber, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-eight.