Wind Measurements

Abstract

AFTER reading the interesting article in NATURE, vol. xxv. p. 486, on wind measurements, the reader cannot but revert to the very unsatisfactory state of anemometry as it now exists. This is only too apparent from the reports which appear in the papers after a gale, and in which are generally detailed the estimated pressures and velocities of the wind as recorded by the anemometers at the principal meteorological stations. Thus during the gale of the 13th–14th of October last we were told that a pressure of 53 lbs. per square foot was recorded at Greenwich, and at the Bidston Observatory, Birkenhead, the pressure reached the alarming figure of 79 lbs. Now it may be readily shown without much calculation, that such pressures as these few buildings could withstand that were not of more than ordinary stability, not to mention the destruction of tall factory chimneys, which, when of the usual dimensions, will not stand a pressure of 30 lbs. per square foot. Yet no such destruction took place. I think, then, we must confess with T. Hawksley, F.R.S. (vide paper read before Section of British Association meeting, York, 1881, on Pressure of Wind on a Fixed Plane Surface), that our present anemometrical instruments are little better than philosophical toys.