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China to Peking. Cameron records that at Nanking, Ricciwas shown an observatorywhose instruments filled him with the utmost astonishment, forthey were finer than any in the Europe he had recently left. Theinstruments had been made in China in the Yuan dynasty[1280-1367]. The Chinese had forgotten how to use them ~ socompletely forgotten, in fact, that they had moved some of theinstruments from another town and failed to regulate thecalibrations for the latitude of the new site.Ricci first travelled to Peking in 1598, but even with hisknowledge of the Chinese language and the complexities ofMing court courtesies, he was unable to obtain an audiencewith the Emperor Wan-li, and was forced to retreat toNanking.Having assembled a collection of presents - includingsome clocks which were to fascinate the Emperor — Riccireturned to the capital in January 1601, this time to stay.His association with the court confirmed his belief thatthe Jesuits' scientific prowess would help consolidaterelations with the Chinese, and he asked Rome to send apriest who was also a good astronomer.Ricci died in Peking in 1610, and it was not until 1622that his request for astronomically-minded clergy wasanswered with the arrival in China of Adam Schall.Before then, however, Ricci had been able to use celestialevents to his advantage. The eclipses of the moon in June andDecember 1601, and of the sun in July 1602, May 1603 andFebruary 1607 allowed him to demonstrate that his calculationswere more accurate than those of local officials.*Adarn Schall also took advantage of an eclipse, and foundhis work rewarded with an unprecedented honour for aWesterner. Schall's predictions concerning an eclipse of thesun in September 1644 proved to be exactly right, and hewas offered the Directorship of the Bureau of Astronomy.After consulting his superiors, he accepted. Collis remarks:'The man of God became a Chinese bureaucrat.'* Collis, Maurice, The Great Within, London, 1941.12
Then came another important scientific clergyman, theBelgian Jesuit Ferdinand Verbiest, who arrived in Peking in1660, shortly before the accession of the second Emperor ofthe Ch'ing dynasty, K'ang-hsi (1662-1722).Verbiest became a companion and confidant to the youngEmperor. He refitted the observatory on Peking's easternwall, superintending the reconstruction of instrumentsoriginally placed there during the Yuan period, including asextant, quadrant and celestial globe. He also introduced thethermometer.Verbiest's arrival coincided with the period of greatscientific advancement in Europe, where some of the firstknown observations about the weather had appeared in the4th century BC, when Aristotle wrote his Meteorologica.By the early 14th century, the earliest known systematicrecording of local weather was performed in England, whenWilliam Merle, Rector of Driby, kept daily records forseven years 1337-1344.The opening of the world's great sea routes, leading to theexploration of countries such as China, created a demand formore and better meteorological information.The first primitive network of observation stations isbelieved to have been established by Ferdinand II of Tuscanyin 1653. His Academy of Experimentation established sevenmeteorological stations in northern Italy and four outside thecountry.The development in Europe at this time of instruments tomeasure physical phenomena greatly assisted the foundationof meteorology as a science. The thermometer had beendeveloped around 1600 and the raingauge in 1639 (althoughmethods of measuring rainfall had been used much earlier inChina, India and Korea). The barometer followed in the1640s, along with the hygrometer to measure humidity andthe anemometer to measure wind speed.In 1780 the Meteorological Society of Mannheim wasformed and established 39 weather observation stations, 14of them in Germany and the rest in other countries.13
Page 2: UNIVERSITY OFHQ,NG KONG>**"/////»I
Page 5: The Royal Observatory, Hong KongJIM
Page 8 and 9: The effect of climate on human cond
Page 11 and 12: IntroductionIifc on earth is possib
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The sun's disc had a diameter on th
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Such detailed rules failed to impre
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the periods before winter droughts
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crossed into Hong Kong, followed by
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inlet of Tola Harbour in the New Te
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The war in Europe had spurred the d
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Inset: The backs of these cigarette
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It 8 am on 8 December 1941, 12 Japa
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The records are all in pencil, neat
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The civil staff was soon put to the
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The department is in fact primarily
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temperature down to 3J°C at the Ob
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moving directly towards Hong Kong,
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If the weather in 1965 was comparat
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since Typhoon Shirley in 1968. It h
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Radar observations early on 26 July
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almost as accurately as from a reco
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Waves smash over the praya at Kenne
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Chapter 5CLICKINGCCFTHEAt the prese
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November and December are normally
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move them a substantial distance in
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.. . wind blowing through the long
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for a series of fine weather and ca
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The typhoon of Saturday September 2
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Above: How the 1874 typhoon destroy
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Above: Aftermath of the 1923 blow w
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its of storm water which could be s
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he splitting of time into microscop
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The Third Congress of the World Met
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small craft. It includes 24-hour ar
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much of the Observatory's work invo
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The marine meteorology section of t
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The water shortage having become ve
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The signal was received by a helica
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The shock occurring yesterday after
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The Royal Observatory is part of tw
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acquired its own radar, which was u
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grass. Soil temperatures are read f
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* Vertical section through the atmo
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of Mineral Resources recommended a
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Much of Hong Kong's population live
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BibliographyABEL, Clarke, Narrative
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IndexAbel, Clarkevisit to Hong Kong
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Macdonnell, Governor Sir Richard, 2
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