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METEOROLOGY AND HYDROGRAPHY.
485
Society of Sciences between the years 1720 and 1740 by E. Burman (1692/1729)
and A. Celsius (1701/44), at first in Uppsala and subsequently a number of
other places in Sweden. The lack, however, of accurate thermometers considerably
diminishes the value of those records. It was not until about 1750, after Celsius
and Linné had given the present graduation to the centigrade thermometer, that
better results were obtained. In Uppsala tolerably good records have been kept
(with a few gaps) ever since 1739, in Stockholm since 1754, and in Lund since
1740. Barometer and rain-gauge were also employed, though the results obtained
were not accurate enough to have much scientific value according to the present
request.
Already previous to that date (1750) Swedish investigators had been enquiring
into the connection existing between the level of the water in rivers and lakes
and the weather, and also into the question of the rise of the land, or, as it
was then called, the shrinkage of the water. U. Hjärne (1641/1724) brought this
matter up in 1694, E. Svedenborg (1688/1772), and D. Tiselius (1682/1744)
were studying it in 1720, while B. Vassenius (1687/1771) published a series of
essays, giving an essentially correct explanation of the connection in point; he
had arrived at his conclusions by observations pursued for several years upon
the weather and the level of the water in Lake Venern. At the present time
we possess several fairly complete series of measurements of the level of the
water in some of the largest sheets of water in the country; some of them date
back to the last half of the 18th, others to the first half of the 19th century.
The Academy of Sciences, at the request of the »Societas Palatina» (fouuded
at Mannheim in 1780), in 1785, organized the registering of meteorological
observations at the principal colleges of the country, placing the supervision of the
same in the hands of the lectors in Mathematics. By that means, a collection
of verv valuable records, extending over a long series of years, has been made,
though the gaps in some places are numerous. Some private individuals have
also since 1785 carried out observations over varying periods of time, and these
too are of great value.
In 1848, A. Erdmann (1814/69) arranged for observations of meteorological
and hydrographical phenomena to be regularly made at twenty lighthouses. In
1858, E. Edlund (1819/88) introduced a system of so-called Second-Class Stations,
to take observations three times a day as to the height of the barometer, of the
dry and wet bulb thermometers, force and direction of the wind, sky and clouds,
rainfall, mists, dews, hoar-frosts, thunder, aurora borealis, etc., and also to take
readings of the maximum and minimum thermometers and of the rain-gauge
once in the twenty-four hours; the observations thus inaugurated have been
continuously kept up ever since in practically unchanged form, save that some
slight extensions of their scope have been introduced, and a few more stations
have by degrees been established. The Second-Class Stations above described
were in 1873 placed under the management of a special institution, founded that
year and subordinate to the Academy of Sciences. That institution is the Central
Meteorological Office in Stockholm, to which is entrusted both the work of
superintending, systematizing, and publishing the meteorological observations made at
the stations under its control, and also the maintenance of the telegraphic weather
service, the object of which is to inform the general public as fully and reliably
as possible about the present and near future with regard to the weather, more
especially in the interests of navigation and agriculture. R. Rubenson (1829/1902)
was appointed to preside over the Office.
In 1865, at Uppsala a series of meteorological observations began to be
made for every hour, throughout day and night. G. Svanberg (1802, 82) exercised
control over and Rubenson had the guidance of these observations, which were
made by voluntary observers, mostly undergraduates. In 1868, self-registering
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