STAR OF THE REPUBLIC MUSEUM HOSTS WEATHER EXHIBT

  

Next week promises to be an exciting time for all areas of the Washington On the Brazos State Historical Park and that includes the Star of the Republic Museum.

The Museum is opening up a new exhibit just in time for the Texas Independence Day Celebrations.

The exhibit, which opens on March first, and runs through February of 2015, describes the way scientific discoveries helped weather forecasting widely available across the United States.  With new inventions, farmers, sailors, merchants and traders no longer had to rely on folklore to determine forecasts.

Curator Shawn Carlson  says few people knew how weather forecasts were made in the 1800s but this exhibit shows how it all happened.

Among the featured items are a weathervane, which helps predict approaching storms and records changing wind directions; a banjo barometer and hygrometers which measures the amount of moisture in the air.

Carlson says this exhibit traces the origin of weather forecasting to the third century B.C., when the Greek philosopher Aristotle began recording his observations.  By the mid-1400s, thermometers, barometers, and hygrometers were commonly used, and with the invention of the telegraph in 1844, weather data began to be widely distributed to largely populated cities across the United States.

In 1846, Joseph Henry, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, recruited farmers across the country to record and submit weather reports.  So much data was collected that by 1891, the National Weather Service was established.