Now we have completed our wanderings, which required only a few days, although they extended over this whole volcanic region, and which end here on the Moselle.—­Ueber Land und Meer; Allgemeine Illustrirte Zeitung.

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[NATURE.]

THE “METEOROLOGISKE INSTITUT” AT UPSALA, AND CLOUD MEASUREMENTS.

The Meteorological Institute at Upsala has gained so much fame by the investigations on clouds which have been carried on there during the last few years, that a few notes on a recent visit to that establishment will interest many readers.

The Institute is not a government establishment; it is entirely maintained by the University of Upsala.  The personnel consists of Prof.  Hildebrandsson, as director; M. Ekholm and one other male assistant, besides a lady who does the telegraphic and some of the computing work.

The main building contains a commodious office, with a small library and living apartments for the assistant.  The principal instrument room is a separate pavilion in the garden.  Here is located Thiorell’s meteograph, which records automatically every quarter of an hour on a slip of paper the height of the barometer, and the readings of the wet and dry thermometers.  Another instrument records the direction and velocity of the wind.

This meteograph of Thiorell’s is a very remarkable instrument.  Every fifteen minutes an apparatus is let loose which causes three wires to descend from rest till they are stopped by reaching the level of the mercury in the different tubes.  When contact is made with the surface of the mercuries, an electric current passes and stops the descent of each wire at the proper time.  The downward motion of the three wires has actuated three wheels, each of which carries a series of types on its edge, to denote successive readings of its own instrument.  For instance, the barometer-wheel carries successive numbers for every five-hundredth of a millimeter—­760.00, 760.05, 760.1, etc.; so that when the motion is stopped the uppermost type gives in figures the actual reading of the barometer.  Then a subsidiary arrangement first inks the types, then prints them on a slip of paper, and finally winds the dipping wires up to zero again.

An ingenious apparatus prevents the electricity from sparking when contact is made, so that there is no oxidation of the mercury.  The mechanism is singularly beautiful, and it is quite fascinating to watch the self acting starting, stopping, inking, and printing arrangements.

We could not but admire the exquisite order in which the whole apparatus was maintained.  The sides of the various glass tubes were as clean as when they were new, and the surfaces of the mercuries were as bright as looking glasses.

The university may well be proud that the instruments were entirely constructed in Stockholm by the skillful mechanic Sorrenson, though the cost is necessarily high.  The meteograph, with the anemograph, cost L600, but the great advantage is that no assistant is required to sit up at night, and that all the figures wanted for climatic constants are ready tabulated without any further labor.