The Royal Observatory, Greenwich: A Glance at Its History and Work

by E. Walter Maunder

A large proportion of the meteorological instruments at Greenwich and other first-class observatories are arranged to be self-recording. It was early felt that it was necessary that the records of the barometer and thermometer should be as nearly as possible continuous; and at one time, within the memory of members of the staff still living, it was the duty of the observer to read a certain set of instruments at regular two-hour intervals during the whole of the day and night—a work probably the most monotonous, trying, and distasteful of any that the Observatory had to show.

The two-hour record was no doubt practically equivalent to a continuous one, but it entailed a heavy amount of labour. Automatic registers were, therefore, introduced whenever they were available. The earliest of these were mechanical, and several still make their records in this manner.

On the roof of the Octagon Room we find, beside the two turrets already referred to, a small wooden cabin built on a platform several feet above the roof level. This cabin and the north-western turret contain the wind-registering instruments. Opening the turret door, we find ourselves in a tiny room which is nearly filled by a small table. Upon this table lies a graduated sheet of paper in a metal frame, and as we look at it, we see that a clock set up close to the table is slowly drawing the paper across it. Three little pencils rest lightly on the face of the paper at different points. One of these, and usually the most restless, is connected with a spindle which comes down into the turret from the roof, and which is, in fact, the spindle of the wind vane. The gearing is so contrived that the motion on a pivot of the vane is turned into motion in a straight line at right angles to the direction in which the paper is drawn by the clock. A second pencil is connected with the wind-pressure anemometer. The third pencil indicates the amount of rain that has fallen since the last setting, the pencil being moved by a float in the receiver of the rain gauge.

THE ANEMOMETER TRACE.

An objection to all the mechanical methods of continuous registration is that, however carefully the gearing between the instrument itself and the pencil is contrived, however lightly the pencil moves over the paper, yet some friction enters in and affects the record: this is of no great moment in wind registration, when we are dealing with so powerful an agent as the wind, but it becomes a serious matter when the barometer is considered, since its variations require to be registered with the greatest minuteness. When photography, therefore, was invented, meteorologists were very prompt to take advantage of this new ally. A beam of light passing over the head of the column of mercury in a thermometer or barometer could easily be made to fall upon a drum revolving once in the twenty-four hours, and covered with a sheet of photographic paper. In this case, when the sensitive paper is developed, we find its upper half blackened, the lower edge of the blackened part showing an irregular curve according as the mercury in the thermometer or barometer rose or fell, and admitted less or more light through the space above it.

Here we have a very perfect means of registration: the passage of the light exercises no friction or check on the free motion of the mercury in the tube, or on the turning of the cylinder covered by the sensitive paper, whilst it is easy to obtain a time scale on the register by cutting off the light for an instant—say at each hour. In this way the wet and dry bulb thermometers in the great shed make their registers.

The supply of material to the Meteorological Office is not the only use of the Greenwich meteorological observations. Two elements of meteorology, the temperature and the pressure of the atmosphere, have the very directest bearing upon astronomical work. And this in two ways. An instrument is sensible to heat and cold, and undergoes changes of form, size, or scale, which, however absolutely minute, yet become, with the increased delicacy of modern work, not merely appreciable, but important. So too with the density of the atmosphere: the light from a distant star, entering our atmosphere, suffers refraction; and being thus bent out of its path, the star appears higher in the heavens than it really is. The amount of this bending varies with the density of the layers of air through which the light has to pass. The two great meteorological instruments, the thermometer and barometer, are therefore astronomical instruments as well.

In the arrangements at Greenwich the Magnetic Department is closely connected with the Meteorological, and it is because the two departments have been associated together that the building devoted to both is constructed of wood, not brick, since ordinary bricks are made of clay which is apt to be more or less ferruginous. Copper nails have alone been employed in the construction of the buildings. The fire-grates, coal-scuttles, and fire-irons are all of the same metal.