Originally Posted by
langleybaston
Barographs
The barograph sat [sits?] in its handsome glass case, with the pressure vessel gently expanding and contracting, and the drum with chart gently turning. Driven by clockwork, and the ink on the pen a little fiddly to maintain, it is a good indicator of the ups and downs of pressure, and a poor measure of absolute values. One of my pleasant occasional extamural tasks was to visit long-serving amateur observers, ships' captains etc, to present them with such a gift from the Office.
When our operation in BFG was winding down, several VSOs who had shown no interest whatsoever in Met. began to place markers for the barograph that sat on my shelf. No way. I was granted authority to shred the shreddables, bin the binnables, and write off as 'unserviceable, worn out, beyond reasonable repair' any instruments remaining. It was that or it went down with the Atlantic Conveyor.
Last man standing Met 1 left Germany with my blessing and with the barograph. To this day his widow maintains it continuously.
About this pristine barograph and the ink.
All you have to do is smoke the foil with whatever source of acrid black smoke you can find, choking optional, and the pointy bit will then scratch out a nice graph for you. If it's really interesting, remove trace and spray with hair lacquer, choking again optional
Seen more than one disappointed face when proudly making a claim after landing only to be advised, usually with an unsympathetic "smile", alas, it wasn't switched on.