Abstract
WHEN the Scotch Meteorological Society was instituted, now nearly twenty years ago, observations on sea-temperature were set on foot at the suggestion of the late Prof. Fleming, and have since been continued. These observations were made by the immersion of thermometers with small cisterns attached, and were taken at the surface and at a depth of 6 feet. Besides these, special observations were made for me on the temperature of the flood and ebb tide at depths extending to 50 feet in the Pentland Frith,* and hourly observations continued at intervals during four years ending in 1863 by Capt. Thomas, R.N., at depths extending to 60 feet.β Such occasional observations seemed to me to be insufficient to show properly the changes in temperature to which the sea is subject, and in August 1872 I suggested to my friend, Prof. Wyville Thomson, the propriety of ascertaining, on his exploring voyage, maximum and minimum temperatures by means of thermometers constantly immersed in the sea. For this purpose a thin malleable iron plate of an oval shape, as shown in Fig. 1, is fixed to the outside skin of the ship so as to form a small cell into which the sea-water finds ready ingress through numerous perforations. This cell, which need not project more than two inches, so as not to cause any appreciable obstruction to the speed of the vessel, should extend so far under the smooth water level as to prevent its lower end from rising above the trough of the sea, or an upright pipe might be placed within the vessel. In sailing ships there might be a cell on each side so as to secure constant immersion while the ship βis on a wind.β In this cell a frame carrying a maximum and minimum thermometer slides in checks so as to be capable of being raised above water to the level of the cabin or the deck, where there should be a porthole to admit of the instruments being read and the indices being readjusted.
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STEVENSON, T. Observations of Maximum and Minimum Sea-Temperatures by Continuous Immersion . Nature 9, 346 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/009346a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/009346a0