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Weather Instruments  |   Weather Inventors  | Teacher Weather Sites  | Grassroots 2002

Types of Weather Instruments
Anemometer
    The weather instrument called an anemometer, measures the wind speed. The anemometer has cups that spin in the wind to measure wind speed. The faster the wind blows, the faster the cups spin. Every time a certain colored cup passes by, it counts as one revolution.
   The first person who invented the anemometer was Leon Battista.  He invented the anemometer in 1456.  He recorded the amount of wind pushing against a flat plate, that was joined to a spring. The first person who invented the anemometer that used numbers to record the wind speed, was Robert Hook.  He invented it in 1667.

 

 
 

 

Here are pictures of the anemometer that we built, pictures of our display board and a picture of a graph of our results.

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Barometer

     The weather instrument called a barometer, measures the air pressure. When the air pressure is high, the toothpick will go up, because there's lots of outside air pressure pushing down on the rubber.  When the air pressure in low,  the air pressure inside the jar will push up on the rubber, so the end of the toothpick will point down.
     Evangelista Torricelli invented the first barometer in 1643.  His barometer was a glass tube about 36 inches (92 cm) long.  It was open on one end and closed on the other.  He filled the tube with mercury and put the open end in a dish of mercury.  When the air pressure was high, there was less space at the top of the tube.  When the air pressure was low then there was more space in the top of the tube.    

 

Here are pictures of the barometer that we built, pictures of our display board and a picture of a graph of our results.

 

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Hygrometer
     The weather instrument,  called a hygrometer,  measures the amount of moisture (water vapour) in the air. The hygrometer shows the moisture in the air, which causes humidity.  When your hair is dry, this shrinks your hair and pulls the lever and pointer up on the scale.  When your hair is wet,  it stretches. The stretching of the hair causes the end of the pointer to drop down.
   Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa was the first inventor of the hygrometer.  His hygrometer didn't  really look like a weather instrument.  The inventor just weighed some wool on a scale.  When there was moisture in the air, that made the wool heavier because the wool sucked up the moisture from the air.  But when it was dry, there was less moisture in the air, so the wool was lighter.

 

  

Here are pictures of the hygrometer that we built, pictures of our display board and a picture of a graph of our results.

 

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Rain Gauge

     The weather instrument called a rain gauge, measures the amount of rainfall. The way the rain gauge works is, water droplets fall into the rain gauge and then the amount of rainfall is measured
with a type of measuring instrument, such as a ruler.  You have to make sure that you look straight at eye level, when you look at the water line inside of the container.  The rain gauge works better when it's NOT hidden under trees or houses,  because you don't want anything getting in the way of the falling rain.
   The Chinese government recorded the rainfall during Chou's ruling of China, over 3000 years ago!  Also, around 400 B.C. (before Christ) rainfall was measured and recorded in India.  These rainfall measurements were used for farming. Rain gauges were also used in Korea around 1442 A.D. which means after the death of Christ.

 

  

Here are pictures of the rain gauge that we built and pictures of our display board.

 

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Thermometer
     The weather instrument called the thermometer, measures the air temperature. The liquid is trapped in a glass tube.  The liquid rises in the thermometer because it is heated.  The mercury
molecules move farther apart and faster when they are heated.  The liquid falls in the tube when the mercury molecules are cold, because they move slower and closer together.  The liquid is usually mercury, but alcohol is also used in some thermometers.
    The first person who invented the thermometer was Galileo Galilei.  It was first invented in 1593.   It was an upside-down tube in a dish of liquid.  His open thermometer was affected by air pressure.  Forty-eight years later a sealed in thermometer was made.
 

Here are pictures of the thermometer that we built and pictures of our display board.

 

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Wind Vane
     The weather instrument called a weather vane or wind vane, measures the direction that the wind is blowing. The weather vane works by pointing in the direction that the wind is blowing. If the head of the arrow is pointing to the northeast, then the wind is coming from the northeast.
   The wind vane was invented 3500 to 4000 years ago according to the ancient writings. The earliest weather vane was built by the astronomer named Adronicus. It was the figure of the Greek god Triton whose body was made up of the head and torso of a man and the tail of a fish.  This weather vane was between 4 to 8 feet long.
 
 

Here are pictures of the weather vane that we built and pictures of our display board.

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