72.  Another most important object to which a meter might be applied, would be to register the quantity of water passing into the boilers of steam-engines.  Without this, our knowledge of the quantity evaporated by different boilers, and with fireplaces of different constructions, as well as our estimation of the duty of steam-engines, must evidently be imperfect.

73.  Another purpose to which machinery for registering operations is applied with much advantage is the determination of the average effect of natural or artificial agents.  The mean height of the barometer, for example, is ascertained by noting its height at a certain number of intervals during the twenty-four hours.  The more these intervals are contracted, the more correctly will the mean be ascertained; but the true mean ought to be influenced by each momentary change which has occurred.  Clocks have been proposed and made with this object, by which a sheet of paper is moved, slowly and uniformly, before a pencil fixed to a float upon the surface of the mercury in the cup of the barometer.  Sir David Brewster proposed, several years ago to suspend a barometer, and swing it as a pendulum.  The variations in the atmosphere would thus alter the centre of oscillation, and the comparison of such an instrument with a good clock, would enable us to ascertain the mean altitude of the barometer during any interval of the observer’s absence.(3*)

An instrument for measuring and registering the quantity of rain, was invented by Mr John Taylor, and described by him in the Philosophical Magazine.  It consists of an apparatus in which a vessel that receives the rain falling into the reservoir tilts over as soon as it is full, and then presents another similar vessel to be filled, which in like manner, when full, tilts the former one back again.  The number of times these vessels are emptied is registered by a train of wheels; and thus, without the presence of the observer, the quantity of rain falling during a whole year may be measured and recorded.

Instruments might also be contrived to determine the average force of traction of horses—­of the wind—­of a stream or of any irregular and fluctuating effort of animal or other natural force.

74.  Clocks and watches may be considered as instruments for registering the number of vibrations performed by a pendulum or a balance.  The mechanism by which these numbers are counted is technically called a scapement.  It is not easy to describe:  but the various contrivances which have been adopted for this purpose, are amongst the most interesting and most ingenious to which mechanical science has given birth.  Working models, on an enlarged scale, are almost necessary to make their action understood by the unlearned reader; and, unfortunately, these are not often to be met with.  A very fine collection of such models exists amongst the collection of instruments at the University of Prague.

Instruments of this kind have been made to extend their action over considerable periods of time, and to register not merely the hour of the day, but the days of the week, of the month, of the year, and also to indicate the occurrence of several astronomical phenomena.