General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

2

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

plastic gauge and interior vessel

Dimensions

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

Length

N/A

Width

N/A

Height

36.5 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

12.6 cm

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Meteorology

Category

Precipitation amount, rate & duration measurement

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Environment CA

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

1970's to 1990's; this instrument was apparently in use for 34 years (Ref. 6)

Canada

An instrument designed and made by or for the Canadian Meteorological Service and used to gather precipitation data across Canada.. This was a type used by volunteer meteorological observers who record data on precipitation and temperature for MSC. 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

An instrument for measuring rainfall, consisting of a vessel which collects rain into an internal graduate for direct measurement.

Technical

An example of an AES Type B rain gauge with an imperial graduate. Since 1869, Canada has used four different manual standard rain gauges, all of similar design. They were all designed and made in Canada. The first three gauges were made of copper and brass though earlier versions had sheet metal bases. These three had a 9.1 cm orifices (10 inch2 area). The Type B manual rain gauge, which came into service in 1970, is constructed of ABS plastic. It has a capacity of 270 mm of rain which is over twice the capacity of the previous MSC copper gauge. This Canadian standard rain gauge is the smallest gauge used throughout the world. It has an orifice diameter of 11.3 cm (100 cm2 area). Europe generally use 12.7 cm gauges and the USA uses a 20.3 cm gauge. The Type B rain gauge, which is supplied to about 2000 stations, is inexpensive and is rugged enough to handle decades of use in our severe climate. It has a resolution of 0.01" on the internal graduate and has an error of only +0.6% when compared to a WMO pit gauge. These gauges were metrified in 1973 by changing the receiver/graduate to read 0 to 25 mm. Rainfall measurements are made twice a day at climatological stations and four times a day at hourly reporting stations such as airports. 1987.0597 is an early prototype (Ref. 1). The Type B rain gauge was still in use in 1992 (Ref. 3).

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

black scale markings on graduate for .10 to 1.0 inches

Missing

appears complete

Finish

white plastic exterior/ colourless transparent graduate

Decoration

N/A