The Introduction of Self-Registering Meteorological Instruments

The Introduction of Self-Registering Meteorological Instruments is a paper by Robert P. Multhauf, Paper 23 in Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology. The paper says the development of self-registering meteorological instruments began very shortly after that of scientific meteorological observation itself. The paper adds that it was not until the 1860's, two centuries after the beginning of scientific observation, that the self-registering instrument became a factor in meteorology.

The paper describes the thermoscope, forerunner of the thermometer, which Galileo developed about 1597 as a method of obtaining comparisons of temperature. The paper says Galileo's speculations on the vacuum, in 1643, led his disciple Torricelli to experiments proving the limitation to nature's horror of a vacuum. The paper says that almost immediately after 1870 the Signal Corps undertook an evidently well-financed program for the introduction of self-registration.