DESCRIPTION OF THE DEEP-SEA RECORDING THERMOMETER.
In the first place, it must be observed that the bulb of the Thermometer is protected so as to resist the pressure of the ocean, which varies according to depth that of three thousand fathoms being something like three tons pressure on the square inch. The manner of protecting the bulb was invented by Messrs. Negretti and Zambra in 1857, and has been latterly copied by other persons and brought out as a new invention. The manner of protecting the bulb has been described by the late Admiral R. FitzRoy, in the first number of Meteorological Papers, page 55, published July 5th, 1857, as follows:
“Referring to the erroneous readings of all thermometers, consequent on their delicate bulbs being compressed by the great pressure of the ocean, he says:—‘With a view to obviate this failing, Messrs. Negretti and Zambra undertook to make a case for the weak bulbs, which should transmit temperature, but resist pressure. Accordingly a tube of thick glass is sealed outside the delicate bulb, between which and the casing is a space all round, which is nearly filled with mercury. The small space not so filled is a vacuum, into which the mercury can be expanded, or forced by heat or mechanical compression, without doing injury to or even compressing the inner or much more delicate bulb.’”
The construction of this instrument for deep-sea temperatures is as follows:—
Fig. 2.
In shape it is like a syphon with parallel legs, all in one piece and having a continuous communication, as in the annexed figure. The scale of the Thermometer is pivoted on a centre and being attached in a perpendicular position to a simple apparatus (which will be presently described), is lowered to any depth that may be desired. In its descent the Thermometer acts as an ordinary instrument, the mercury rising or falling according to the temperature of the stratum through which it passes; but so soon as the descent ceases, and a reverse motion is given to the line, so as to pull the Thermometer towards the surface, the instrument turns once on its centre, first bulb uppermost, and afterwards bulb downwards. This causes the mercury, which was in the left-hand column, first to pass into the dilated syphon bend at the top, and thence into the right-hand tube, where it remains, indicating on a graduated scale the exact temperature at the time it was turned over. The woodcut, Fig. 1, shows the position of the mercury after the instrument has been thus turned on its centre. A is the bulb; B the outer coating or protecting cylinder; C is the space of rarefied air, which is reduced if the outer casing be compressed; D is a small glass plug on the principle of Negretti and Zambra’s Patent Maximum Thermometer, which cuts off, in the moment of turning, the mercury in the tube from that of the bulb, thereby ensuring that none but the mercury in the tube can be transferred into the indicating column; E is an enlargement made in the bend so as to enable the mercury to pass quickly from one tube to another in revolving; and F is the indicating tube or Thermometer proper. In its action, as soon as the Thermometer is put in motion, and immediately the tube has acquired a slightly oblique position, the mercury breaks off at the point D, runs into the curved and enlarged portion E, and eventually falls into the tube F when this tube resumes its original perpendicular position.
Fig. 3.
The contrivance for turning the Thermometer over may be described as a frame with a vertical propeller; to this frame the instrument is pivoted. On its descent through the water the propeller is lifted out of gear and revolves freely on its axis; but so soon as the instrument is pulled towards the surface the propeller falls into gear and revolves in the contrary direction, turning the Thermometer over once, and then becoming locked and immovable.