ADMIRAL ROBERT FITZROY

Robert Fitzroy, son of Lord Charles, was born at Ampton Hall, Suffolk, in 1805 and entered the Navy at the age of 12. During his long career, he was for many years Captain of the HMS Beagle which achieved fame as a result of Charles Darwin's expeditions. He eventually rose to the rank of Admiral, was elected Member of Parliament for Durham in 1841, and appointed Governor of New Zealand in 1843.

At his retirement from active service in 1850, he turned his attention to the science of meteorology. Among his considerable accomplishments, he induced the Times to print weather information on a daily basis and the Board of Trade to supply many coastal villages with barometers. He designed a vastly improved marine barometer. In 1862 he published his Weather Book which summarized his extensive and immensely important work on meteorology.

To the barometer collector, he is most remembered for consolidating weather information and presenting his now classic Remarks, which distinguish the barometer carrying his name, that interpret the meaning of rising or falling mercury.

Admiral Fitzroy's Barometers were not designed by and were probably never seen by Admiral Fitzroy who took his own life in 1865 before the earliest known Fitzroys were made.

 

ADMIRAL FITZROY'S BAROMETER

By far the best known type of barometer ever produced was called Admiral Fitzroy's Barometer and was the first inexpensive and serviceable barometer made by mass-production methods. The earliest Fitzroys were made in the late 1860s, so it is probable that Fitzroy himself, who died by his own hand in 1865, never saw one. (At right is an unusually high-quality example, called the Prize Fitzroy-- not the simple pine or oak case of most Fitzroys.)

Common to these large late-19th century instruments is the degree of detailed information concerning not only the rise and fall of pressure, but of associated conditions of temperature and direction of the wind. His remarks, carried on most barometers, emphasize the fact that the state of the air, as shown by the barometer, tells coming rather than present weather conditions.

Typical ancillary instruments include a Fahrenheit thermometer and a storm glass. Storm glasses have been known since the 17th century but came into general use with the Fitzroy barometer. Clamped onto the lower left, these are glass cylinders with brass caps. The contents are a mixture of camphor, ammonia, alcohol, potassium nitrate, and water, which reacts to air pressure, wind direction, and electrical charge of the air.

Typical readings and the predicted weather:
Clear liquid . . . . Good, fine weather
Crystals at bottom . . . . Frost in winter
Turbid liquid (substance rising) . . Rain
Turbid liquid with crystals. . . . Thunder
Large crystals. . . . Close weather, cloudy skies, snow
Chains of crystals at the top . . . . Windy weather
Substance lies to one side . . . . Storm or wind from other direction