Hygrometric Substances

The instruments devised for the purpose of ascertaining the humidity of the atmosphere are termed hygrometers. The earliest invented hygrometers were constructed of substances readily acted upon by the vapour in the air, such as hair, grass, seaweed, catgut, &c., which all absorb moisture, and thereby increase in length, and when deprived of it by drying they contract. Toy-like hygrometers, upon the principle of absorption, are still common as ornaments for mantel-pieces. A u eful little instrument of this class, formed from the beard of the wild oat, is made to resemble a watch in external appearance, and is designed to prove the dampness or dryness of beds: a moveable hand points out on the dial the hygrometric condition of the clothes upon which the instrument is laid.

Saussure’s Hygrometer, formerly used as a meteorologic instrument, but now regarded as an ornamental curiosity, is represented in fig. 75. Its action depends upon a prepared hair, fixed at one end to the frame of the instrument, and wound round a pulley at the other. The pulley carries a pointer which has a counterpoise sufficient to keep the hair stretched. By this means the shrinking and lengthening of the hair cause the pointer to traverse a graduated arc indicating the relative humidity.

Such instruments, however ingenious, are not of scientific value; because they do not admit of rigid comparison, are liable to alter in their contractile and expansive properties, and cannot be made to indicate precisely alike.

Dew-Point.—The amount of water which the air can sustain in an invisible form increases with the temperature; but for every definite temperature there is a limit to the amount of vapour which can be thus diffused. When the air is cooled, the vapour present may be more than it can sustain; part will then be condensed as dew, rain, hail or snow, according to the meteorologic circumstances. The temperature which the air has when it is so fully saturated with vapour that any excess will be deposited as dew, is called the dew-point.

Drosometer.—“To measure the quantity of dew deposited each night, an instrument is used called a Drosometer. The most simple process consists in exposing to the open air bodies whose exact weight is known, and then weighing them afresh after they are covered with dew. According to Wells, locks of wool, weighing about eight grains, are to be preferred, which are to be divided [formed] into spherical masses of the diameter of about two inches.”—KÅ“mtz.

Humidity.—The proportion existing between the amount of vapour actually present in the air at any time, and the quantity necessary to completely saturate it, is called the degree of humidity. It is usually expressed in a centesimal scale, 0 being perfect dryness, and 100 complete saturation.

The pressure, or tension, of vapour at the dew-point temperature, divided by the tension of vapour at the air temperature and the quotient multiplied by 100, gives the degree of humidity. (Regnault’s Tables should be used.)

Hence the utility of instruments for determining the dew-point.