General Information

Serial #

41016

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

non-ferrous metal (brass?) scale and attachment bracket/ glass thermometer tube/ mercury

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

24.7 cm

Width

4.4 cm

Height

2.9 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Meteorology

Category

Atmospheric pressure measurement

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Short Mason

Country

England

State/Province

Unknown

City

London

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

Period

1950's +

Canada

An English made scale of a type used on a barometer made by the Meteorological Service of Canada, specifically on the MSC barometer designed for shipboard use.. The MSC Marine barometer was developed some time after 1943; it is not described in MSC's barometer manual of that year (Ref. 5). The MSC Marine gold scale barometer appears in the 1952 and 1958 "Vocabulary of Instruments' (Refs. 2-3) and the MSC Type C Marine barometer in the 1961 edition (Ref. 4); it is not known if these were the same instrument. A scale almost identical to this one can be found on the MSC Type C marine barometer 2202.0340; both are calibrated for inches and millibars. Part of a large collection of meteorological instruments acquired from the Meteorological Service of Canada (previously Atmospheric Environment Service) by the CSTM since 1967. MSC is the government agency responsible for collecting and disseminating meteorological data and forecasts in Canada. It was founded in 1871 in Toronto where it is still headquartered. The MSC was originally on the University of Toronto downtown campus but moved to Downsview in 1971 on land owned by UofT. The headquarters houses laboratories, research facilities and calibration and instrument maintenance facilities (now largely contracted out).

Function

A sliding scale containing a thermometer, intended to be attached to a mercury barometer to allow it to be used on a ship by enabling the correction of the barometer.

Technical

The MSC fixed cistern barometer was modified for marine use (2002.0340) by the introduction of a narrow tube into the standard tube in order to minimize the effect of the motion of the sea. This barometer was also provided with a gimbal mounting and a gold scale, such as 2004.0364. The MSC Marine barometer has the ordinary barometer scale used by MSC in making its fixed cistern barometers (see 1966.0226, 2002,0227, 2002,0228, 2002,0229) but instead of a thermometer has a sliding scale containing a mercury thermometer. The scale is calibrated for +8 to -7 Mb, 260 to 320 [26 to 32 inches?], 0 to 90 LAT. [degrees of latitude?], and 0 to 100 feet of height above the water line.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

incised lettering on scale reads 'THE ONTARIO HUGHES-CANADA CO. Ltd./ OTTAWA, CANADA/ MADE BY SHORT & MASON, LONDON./ MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN', '41016', 'CORRECTION TO BAROMETER', HEIGHT/ ABOVE WATER LINE/ with scales for +8 to -7 Mb, 0 to 100 feet, 0 to 90 LAT., 260 to 320/ incised lettering on thermometer tube reads '63000' and 'NP 42'

Missing

appears complete

Finish

plated scale/ glossy black painted attachment bracket/ colourless transparent glass thermometer tube

Decoration

N/A