Rule
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2004.0330.001
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- OBJECT TYPE
- snow/imperial/36 inch
- DATE
- 1950–1960
- ARTIFACT NUMBER
- 2004.0330.001
- MANUFACTURER
- DOT Meteorological Div.
- MODEL
- 2
- LOCATION
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
More Information
General Information
- Serial #
- N/A
- Part Number
- 1
- Total Parts
- 1
- AKA
- Snow ruler
- Patents
- N/A
- General Description
- wood with metal end caps
Dimensions
Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.
- Length
- 91.4 cm
- Width
- 2.9 cm
- Height
- N/A
- Thickness
- N/A
- Weight
- N/A
- Diameter
- N/A
- Volume
- N/A
Lexicon
- Group
- Meteorology
- Category
- Precipitation amount, rate & duration measurement
- Sub-Category
- N/A
Manufacturer
- AKA
- MSC
- Country
- Canada
- State/Province
- Ontario
- City
- Toronto
Context
- Country
- Canada
- State/Province
- Unknown
- Period
- 1950's; this instrument was apparently in use for 40 years (Ref. 7).
- Canada
-
A snow measuring device of a type used by the Meteorological Service of Canada to gather snowfall amount data across Canada. Part of a large collection of meteorological instruments acquired from the Meteorological Service of Canada (previously Atmospheric Environment Service) by the CSTM since 1967. MSC is the government agency responsible for collecting and disseminating meteorological data and forecasts in Canada. It was founded in 1871 in Toronto where it is still headquartered. The MSC was originally on the University of Toronto downtown campus but moved to Downsview in 1971 on land owned by UofT. The headquarters houses laboratories, research facilities and calibration and instrument maintenance facilities (now largely contracted out). - Function
-
A measuring device used to manually determine the depth of fallen snow. - Technical
-
Snowfall has traditionally been measured by its depth on the ground. The snowfall depth which is measured manually with a ruler is converted to its water equivalent by multiplying by 0.1 (i.e., 1 cm of snow equals 1 mm of water). Since this ratio can vary between 0.03 and 0.4 depending on the density of the falling/fallen snow, the quality of this technique is quite variable. Some automatic stations use an acoustic snow depth sensor which was originally developed by the MSC (see MSC020) and further developed by CS (Ref. 1). The Type 2 36 inch MSC wood Snow Ruler is listed in the Meteorological Branch's 1952 and 1958 lists of equipment in use (Refs. 3-4) but not in similar documents for 1961 and 1965. In the 1950's it superseded the 10 inch plastic rule Type 1 and had been replaced by the Type 3 rule by 1961. Snow rulers were still being used in the 1990s (Ref. 2). - Area Notes
-
Unknown
Details
- Markings
- incised black lettering on each side reads 'DEPT. OF TRANSPORT - METEOROLOGICAL DIV. - SNOW RULE TYPE 2',
- Missing
- complete
- Finish
- coated light brown wood with dark brown end caps
- Decoration
- N/A
CITE THIS OBJECT
If you choose to share our information about this collection object, please cite:
DOT Meteorological Div., Rule, between 1950–1960, Artifact no. 2004.0330, Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation, http://collection.ingeniumcanada.org/en/id/2004.0330.001/
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