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Hygrometer

A hygrometer is an instrument that measures humidity by detecting changes in properties like temperature, pressure, mass or electrical resistance caused by the absorption of water vapor. Early prototypes were developed in Ancient China using charcoal or earth to detect weight changes from humidity. Later innovations included the metal-coil hygrometer using a paper strip and the hair-tension hygrometer, first created by Horace Bénédict de Saussure in 1783, which uses changes in length of human hair under tension to measure humidity. The hair-tension hygrometer remains a classical design that works by connecting hair stretched over a pulley to an index that moves along a graduated scale.

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61 views4 pages

Hygrometer

A hygrometer is an instrument that measures humidity by detecting changes in properties like temperature, pressure, mass or electrical resistance caused by the absorption of water vapor. Early prototypes were developed in Ancient China using charcoal or earth to detect weight changes from humidity. Later innovations included the metal-coil hygrometer using a paper strip and the hair-tension hygrometer, first created by Horace Bénédict de Saussure in 1783, which uses changes in length of human hair under tension to measure humidity. The hair-tension hygrometer remains a classical design that works by connecting hair stretched over a pulley to an index that moves along a graduated scale.

Uploaded by

vijay kumar honnali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Hygrometer

A hair tension dial hygrometer with a nonlinear scale.

Humidity and hygrometry

Specific concepts

 Dew point
 Dew point depression
 Psychrometrics

General concepts
 Air
 Concentration
 Density
 Dew
 Evaporation
 Humidity buffering
 (Atm.) Pressure
 Liquid water
 Avogadro's law
 Nucleation
 Thermodynamic equilibrium

Measures and instruments


 Heat index
 Sat. vap. density
 Mixing ratio
 Water activity
 H. indicator
o card
 Hygrometer
 Dry/Wet-bulb temperature

 v
 t
 e

A hygrometer is an instrument which measures the humidity of air or some other gas:
that is, how much water vapor it contains.[1] Humidity measurement instruments usually
rely on measurements of some other quantities such as temperature, pressure, mass
and mechanical or electrical changes in a substance as moisture is absorbed. By
calibration and calculation, these measured quantities can lead to a measurement of
humidity. Modern electronic devices use the temperature of condensation (called
the dew point), or they sense changes in electrical capacitance or resistance to
measure humidity differences. A crude hygrometer was invented by Leonardo da
Vinci in 1480. Major leaps came forward during the 1600s; Francesco Folli invented a
more practical version of the device, while Robert Hooke improved a number of
meteorological devices including the hygrometer. A more modern version was created
by Swiss polymath Johann Heinrich Lambert in 1755. Later, in the year 1783, Swiss
physicist and Geologist Horace Bénédict de Saussure invented the first hygrometer
using human hair to measure humidity.
The maximum amount of water vapor that can be held in a given volume of air
(saturation) varies greatly by temperature; cold air can hold less mass of water per unit
volume than hot air. Temperature can change humidity.

Classical hygrometer[edit]
Ancient hygrometers[edit]
Prototype hygrometers were devised and developed during the Shang dynasty in
Ancient China to study weather.[2] The Chinese used a bar of charcoal and a lump of
earth: its dry weight was taken, then compared with its damp weight after being
exposed in the air. The differences in weight were used to tally the humidity level.
Other techniques were applied using mass to measure humidity, such as when the air
was dry, the bar of charcoal would be light, while when the air was humid, the bar of
charcoal would be heavy. By hanging a lump of earth and a bar of charcoal on the two
ends of a staff separately and adding a fixed lifting string on the middle point to make
the staff horizontal in dry air, an ancient hygrometer was made.[3][2]
Metal-paper coil type[edit]
The metal-paper coil hygrometer is very useful for giving a dial indication of humidity
changes. It appears most often in inexpensive devices, and its accuracy is limited, with
variations of 10% or more. In these devices, water vapor is absorbed by a salt-
impregnated paper strip attached to a metal coil, causing the coil to change shape.
These changes (analogous to those in a bimetallic thermometer) cause an indication on
a dial. There is usually a metal needle on the front of the gauge that will change where it
points to.
Hair tension hygrometers[edit]

Deluc's hair tension whalebone hygrometer (MHS Geneva)


These devices use a human or animal hair under some tension. The hair
is hygroscopic (tending toward retaining moisture); its length changes with humidity,
and the length change may be magnified by a mechanism and indicated on a dial or
scale. In the late 17th century, such devices were called by some
scientists hygroscopes; that word is no longer in use, but hygroscopic and hygroscopy,
which derive from it, still are. The traditional folk art device known as a weather
house works on this principle. Whale bone and other materials may be used in place of
hair.
In 1783, Swiss physicist and geologist Horace Bénédict de Saussure built the first hair-
tension hygrometer using human hair.
It consists of a human hair eight to ten inches[4] long, b c, Fig. 37, fastened at one
extremity to a screw, a, and at the other passing over a pulley, c, being strained tight by
a silk thread and weight, d.

— John William Draper, A Textbook on Chemistry


The pulley is connected to an index which moves over a graduated scale (e). The
instrument can be made more sensitive by removing oils from the hair, such as by first
soaking the hair in diethyl ether

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