Albert Piche, in Paris, described this simple instrument in 1872, and the Signal Service was soon using evaporimeters to determine the rate of evaporation in different parts of the United States. An account from 1888 mentions "an inverted graduated test-tube filled with water, its mouth closed by a disk of filter paper held by a spring." In this example, the evaporimeter (probably an improved version designed by Charles F. Marvin of the U.S. Weather Bureau) is enclosed in a copper box on iron legs.
An evaporimeter is also known as an atmometer.
Ref.: "Exhibition of the New England Meteorological Society," American Meteorological Journal 5 (1888): 443.
"Improved Piche Evaporimeter," in H. J. Green, Scientific Instruments. Catalog C (Brooklyn, n.d.), p.15.
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