Description

Carl-Gustaf Rossby, Karl Lange, and pilot Daniel C. Sayre stand under a plane's wing, looking at a device that Dr. Lange is holding. The device is called the meteorograph, and it records weather information during flights at MIT's flying laboratory. Original caption: "Examining the meteorograph, the instrument which automatically makes continuous records of temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure during the flights of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's flying laboratory. From left to right, Professor C.G.A. Rossby, in charge of the division of meteorology at the Institute; Dr. K.O. Lange, who directs the weather studies of the flying laboratory; and Professor Daniel C. Sayre, research pilot who in daily flights takes the plane to a height of more than 17,000 feet over Boston. Dr. Lange is holding the mechanism of the meteorograph, which fits into the metal case suspended under the wing. The slender metal fingers make their records of temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure on a drum which is covered with a thin aluminum foil, the surface of which is smoked. The records appear in the form of silvery tracings upon this smoked surface. From John J. Rowlands, Director of Publicity, Mass. Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.", from Jule Gregory Charney archive.