A NEW METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENT
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Ford Stanley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
November 1867.
I, WILLIAM FORD STANLEY, Optician, of Great Turnstile, Holborn, London, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW METEOROLOGICAL
INSTRUMENT," to be as follows:-
For the Invention of an instrument which I hereafter call a meteorometer,
the purpose of which is to perdict the probable weather. The construction of
this will combine in one instrument the following indications:-The specific
weight, the direction, the force, the temperature, the hydrometric, and the
electric state of the atmosphere; also will indicate whether the mercurial
column is rising or falling; also the combined action of weight and direction
of the atmosphere acting together, giving the meteorological effects of their
combined action by indication on one dial; also the amount of rainfall in a
given time. A compensating clock will be generally placed upon the face of
the instrument.
The various parts of the meteorometer will be as follows:-All indications
will be shewn on one frame or on one vertical surface, the most convenient
size for which will be five feet high by one foot broad, this will generally be
inclosed in a glass case. Upon the surface will be fixed various indicators.
The first part to indicate the weight of the atmosphere by the action of a
barometer which may be of the aneroid construction, but will be by preference
by a mercurial column, which will not be straight as in the ordinary barometer,

page_text: but be curved to make room for other parts of the instrument. The mercurial
column will be adjusted to standard by what is termed a floating gauge, the
construction of which will not be as the ordinary floating gauge which
indicates by one line only and an adjusting screw to bring the mercury to this
line, but by having the float divided as a vernier to read upon a scale to the
centisimal parts of an inch or other unit, and thus dispense with the necessity
of the adjusting screw.
Second Part. A compass dial of the ordinary kind with cardinal points
and subdivisions will be fixed upon the surface to indicate by an index hand
the direction in which the superincumbent atmosphere is moving; this index
hand will be connected with a vane on the top of the building in which the
meteorometer is fixed, and which vane will form a part of the complete
instrument. The connection of the vane in the ordinary indicator is by
means of a descending rod and cogged wheels, in this part of the Invention I
use one or two cords or wires to connect the vane with the indicator, which
wires pass over pulleys to allow for the compensation occasioned by expansion
and contraction of the cord or wires. I connect the motion with the dial by
means of what is technically called Hook's joints.
Third Part. The pressure of the atmosphere or rate of motion will be
indicated on the face of the metrometer by the exposure of one leg of a
glass U tube, which will be partially filled with fluid; one end of this tube
will be connected by a small metal tube with the vane on the top of the
building. The pressure of the atmosphere will be shewn by the action of a
fan removing the pressure from the air contained in the tube by the centri-
fugal force of the movement of the fan, or by the equivalent movement of an
archimedian screw. The action of this part may be reversed and the air
pressed instead of exhausted.
Fourth Part. The temperature, hydrometric and electric state of the
atmosphere, will be shewn on the surface of the meteorometer by the
customary means, no further Invention being claimed in relation to this part
than the combination upon my meteorometer with the other parts described.
Fifth Part. The indicating of the rising and falling of the mercurial
column is accomplished by a separate barometer tube of an inverted con-
struction, that is, the bulb is placed in the upper part of the tube instead
of in the lower, the return limb of the bent part of the tube carries a
float connected with a line which passes over a pulley of about a sixteenth of
an inch diameter; this pulley carries an index hand which indicates rising and
falling only on a dial. The hand is caused to stop when it arrives at either of
these indications, and as the pulley can move no further in the direction in

page_text: which it is carried by the line the line slips on the pulley with any further
rise of the mercury, or fall if it is going continuously in the falling direction.
It is particularly to be observed that this part does not indicate the position of
the mercury as it is done in the common wheel barometer, but that it only
indicates whether it is rising or falling.
Sixth Part. The combination, action of weight, and direction of atmosphere
acting together. This is effected by a separate barometer wheel and index
hand, which points to words fair, rain, storm, and so forth upon a dial, which
dial is not fixed as usual, but is made to move with the direction of the wind,
so that the hand will point to one indication when the wind is in the south,
and another when it is in the north, this motion of the dial being given off
from a cam or crank connected with the second part described. It may also
be similarly connected with the third and fourth parts described.
Seventh Part.-Indication of the amount of rain fall in a given time. This
will be indicated on the surface of the meteorometer by means of a glass tube
in which is placed a rod of glass or other material; this rod will be raised in
the tube, so that the end of it will read upon a scale of inches the amount of
rainfall by being connected by a wire or cord drawn by a float on the surface
of the water in the rain gauge on the top of the building, the rain gauge being
constructed to admit this float with pulleys, and so forth. To prevent
evaporation of the water in the rain gauge a valve consisting of a hollow
sphere of blown glass or other light material will fit loosely on the orifice
which admits the rain or a valve so balanced that it will float to let any water
pass and close to prevent evaporation.
The novelties claimed by this Invention are particularly the combination of
the registration of the direction and force of the atmosphere on the same
instrument as that on which the weight and temperature are shewn, as also
the combination of the other atmospheric effects described. Thus the
meteorometer will give in the dimensions of a simple instrument the complete
observations of what commonly occupies an entire room or meteorological
observatory, and the whole may be of ornamental construction, and be fixed
in any gentleman's hall.
In the construction of the various parts particularly to this end the
following parts being new are claimed if applied to other separate instruments
when used for the purpose described. In the first part the floating gauge to
indicate by vernier reading. In the second part the conveyance of the
direction of the wind by lines instead of a rod, and the compensation by
Hook's joint. In the third part the indication of pressure by means of a
tube and apparatus described. In the fifth part the shewing of the mere

page_text: rising or falling of the mercury without indicating the distance risen or fallen.
The sixth part the combination of two or more indications and the means
described. In the seventh part the peculiarities of the rain guage, the float,
the line, and the valve.
Generally I claim the mechanical equivalent of the ideas described, as also
the power to vary the material in various parts, also power of leaving out
parts of the combination so long as the indication of the weight and direction
of the atmosphere form a part, this being the most peculiar part of the Inven-
tion which makes the meteorometer the most perfect portable weather
indicator.