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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
I. Chinnici, G. Consolmagno (eds.), Angelo Secchi and Nineteenth Century Science,
Historical & Cultural Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58384-2_10
Chapter 10
Secchi’s Meteorographs Outside of Italy
Paolo Brenni
10.1 Introduction
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to carefully restore and study the meteorograph developed in Rome beginning in the 1850s by the famous Italian scientist and
Jesuit Father, Angelo Secchi (1818–1878) (Altamore and Maffeo 2012; Chinnici
2019). This instrument is preserved today in the historical collections of INAFRome Astronomical Observatory, at Monte Porzio Catone, near Rome. As a followup of that work, I published a series of articles concerning its technical characteristics
as well as the history of this apparatus and its restoration (Brenni 1992a, b; Brenni
1993a, b). There, I focused my attention on three meteorographs: the first one modified and improved by Secchi, the second one presented to the Paris Universal
Exhibition of 1867 (and later returned to Rome), and the third one made for the
Palermo Observatory. Recent research allows now me to report on seven other
meteorographs that had been installed and used outside Italy.
10.2 The Meteorograph of Father Secchi
Due to the increasing importance of meteorology and weather forecasting from the
beginning of the nineteenth century, several types of meteorographs were proposed
by scientists, inventors, and instrument makers (Multhauf 1961; Knowles Middleton
1969). These machines were able to measure and record simultaneously several
atmospheric parameters such as temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed,
quantity of rain, etc. Certainly among them the one conceived and developed by
P. Brenni (*)
CNR, Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy
e-mail: p.brenni@museogalileo.it
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
I. Chinnici, G. Consolmagno (eds.), Angelo Secchi and Nineteenth Century Science,
Historical & Cultural Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58384-2_10
Chapter 10
Secchi’s Meteorographs Outside of Italy
Paolo Brenni
10.1 Introduction
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to carefully restore and study the meteorograph developed in Rome beginning in the 1850s by the famous Italian scientist and
Jesuit Father, Angelo Secchi (1818–1878) (Altamore and Maffeo 2012; Chinnici
2019). This instrument is preserved today in the historical collections of INAFRome Astronomical Observatory, at Monte Porzio Catone, near Rome. As a followup of that work, I published a series of articles concerning its technical characteristics
as well as the history of this apparatus and its restoration (Brenni 1992a, b; Brenni
1993a, b). There, I focused my attention on three meteorographs: the first one modified and improved by Secchi, the second one presented to the Paris Universal
Exhibition of 1867 (and later returned to Rome), and the third one made for the
Palermo Observatory. Recent research allows now me to report on seven other
meteorographs that had been installed and used outside Italy.
10.2 The Meteorograph of Father Secchi
Due to the increasing importance of meteorology and weather forecasting from the
beginning of the nineteenth century, several types of meteorographs were proposed
by scientists, inventors, and instrument makers (Multhauf 1961; Knowles Middleton
1969). These machines were able to measure and record simultaneously several
atmospheric parameters such as temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed,
quantity of rain, etc. Certainly among them the one conceived and developed by
P. Brenni (*)
CNR, Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy
e-mail: p.brenni@museogalileo.it