Monthly Weather Review Research Articles

Anemometer Tests

THE U.S. Monthly Weather Review for February contains an important contribution by Prof. C. F. Marvin on anemometer tests. The paper gives the results of a series of experiments to determine the factor of an anemometer specially designed for use with kites at considerable altitudes in the free air. For that purpose the anemometer has necessarily to be very small and light, and in the present case the cups were only 1.22 inch in diameter, and the length of the arms, from the centre of cup to the spindle, only 1.96 inch. The author describes at length the whirling apparatus used in making the experiments, and which had been previously used in the year 1888, but in an enclosed space, instead of in the free air. He points out that a whirling apparatus is absolutely necessary for testing anemometers, because we have no other means of accurately measuring the speed of the wind to which the instrument is exposed, unless we employ for that purpose some other anemometer, which must itself be first tested. In the author's view, the effect of using the whirler in the open air is to alternately add to anal subtract from the artificial wind resulting from the steady motion of the whirler, so that the actual resultant wind affecting the anemometer acquires a gusty character which is analogous to the conditions always existing in the free air, and the artificial gusty wind thus secured affords a highly appropriate test-wind for anemometers that are to be used in the open air. The apparatus employed is shown in a plate, which we reproduce.

The Use of Kites in Weather Prediction

THE systematic exploration of the upper air by means of kites is referred to by Prof. Cleveland Abbe in the Monthly Weather Review, at the end of a long article upon the experiments made previous to 1893. It is pointed out that at that time the Malay kite and the free balloon were merely looked upon as the means occasionally obtaining isolated items of information from the upper regions; the world had not then awakened to the possibility of the work inaugurated by Prof. Moore in July 1895, which looks to the compilation of a daily map of simultaneous observations high above the earth's surface and over a large portion of the United States, for study in connection with the map of surface conditions. Observations of the air at a single station can have but little value compared with the international balloon work of Europe, or the extended national kite work of the U.S. Weather Bureau.

Scientific Serials

THE current number (July) of the Monthly Weather Review (Washington) contains a paper on the observation of halo phenomena. This is a translation of a reprint of an article by the Rev. K. Schips in the Year-book of the Natural History Association, a copy of which we have received. A committee has been formed in Germany for the study of halos, and a request is made for the regular observation of these phenomena, as it appears that the subject of meteorological optics receives no great attention, except in Japan. The paper will be found instructive to both observers and students.—The equations of hydrodynamics in a form suitable for application to problems connected with the movements of the earth's atmosphere, by J. Cottier. This contribution is of much importance to those who are studying the fundamental problem of meteorology. Mr. Cottier, who was a student of brilliant promise, unfortunately died on August 17.—Rain gushes in thunderstorms, by the editor (Prof. Cleveland Abbe). Several plausible explanations of this phenomenon have been put forward from time to time, but have been rejected as erroneous. It is at present an open question whether the gushes of rain bring about the formation of lightning, or vice versâ. Several suggestions are made by the editor, which require to be tested by further experiment.—Among various other notes there is an interesting one, entitled “Kites at the Chicago Conference, August 1893.” This method of obtaining information relating to the upper air is daily becoming more popular, and seems likely to lead to useful results.

STATISTICAL INVESTIGATION OF SUNSTROKE.

The abnormal heat that prevailed over the eastern two-thirds of the United States during the last few days of July and first fifteen days of August, suggested to the Chief of the Weather Bureau the propriety of studying the subject of sunstroke, in so far as it is connected with and dependent upon meteorologic conditions. To this end, circulars were sent out to various hospitals and private physicians located in the affected region. Dr. W. F. R.Phillips, in charge of the Section of Climatology, has compiled and studied the different reports returned in reply to the circular letter, and his statistics and deductions, as given in the<i>Monthly Weather Review</i>, November, 1896, present several points of extreme interest. From such sources as were accessible there were collected 2,038 instances of death during August, 1896, directly attributed to sunstroke. This falls far short of the actual number of deaths, and

List of volutary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

List of volutary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

List of volutary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

<i>List of volutary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review</i>

SUBJECT INDEX TO THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. JANUARY-DECEMBER, 1892

SUBJECT INDEX TO THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. JANUARY-DECEMBER, 1892

List of voluntary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

List of voluntary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

SUBJECT INDEX TO THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW

SUBJECT INDEX TO THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW

List of voluntary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

List of voluntary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

List of voluntary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

<i>List of voluntary observers of the Weather Bureau, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review</i>

List of voluntary observers of the Signal Service, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

<i>List of voluntary observers of the Signal Service, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review</i>

List of voluntary observers of the Signal Service, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review

<i>List of voluntary observers of the Signal Service, who furnish meteorological reports for the Monthly Weather Review</i>

SUBJECT INDEX TO THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW

SUBJECT INDEX TO THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW

SUBJECT INDEX TO THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW

SUBJECT INDEX TO THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW

The Meteorology of Havana 1

THIS annual of the Royal College of the Society of Jesus at Havana for 1875, which has just been published, possesses more than a passing interest. The observations were made daily every two hours from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m., and include pressure, temperature, humidity, wind, rain, magnetic, electric, optical, and other weather phenomena. The results are plotted on large monthly diagrams, and as each day has six-tenths of an inch devoted to it, the two-hourly observations of all the different elements can be readily seen and compared with each other; and this part of the work is done with a scrupulous care and accuracy it would not be easy to surpass. On the same diagrams are marked the days on which auroras are reported to have been observed in the United States, as published in the Monthly Weather Review at Washington.

American Science

THE chief signal officer of the U.S. army has been urging that physical observations of the sun be made, as of sun-spots, faculæ, protuberances, &c., in reference to their supposed influence upon terrestrial meteorology, and has offered to publish the results monthly, or such of them as may be considered desirable by the observer, in the Monthly Weather Review. The United States Naval Observatory at Washington has already accepted this proposition, and it is considered very desirable that some other observatories in the east, and at least one on the western coast, co-operate in this undertaking.