Mason & Sullivan Admiral Fitzroy's barometer. Wooden base with barometer, alcohol thermometer, and storm glass, behind glass front. Topped by eagle finial. 20th Century.

Condition: Eagle is loose.

Size: 45 x 3 1/4 x 8 3/4 in.

#32 #1640 . 

Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy FRS, born July 5th, 1805, was an English officer of the Royal Navy and scientist. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin’s famous voyage, a second expedition to Tierra del Fuego and the Southern Cone. As Governor of New Zealand, serving from 1843 to 1845, he tried to protect the Maori from illegal land sales claimed by British settlers. Obsessed with saving the lives of as many sailors and fishermen as possible, he designed and began to produce a new type of barometer which became popular and continued in production into the 21st Century, characteristically engraved with Admiral FitzRoy’s special remarks on interpretation, such as: “When rising: In winter the rise of the barometer presages frost.” A storm in 1859 that caused the loss of the Royal Charter further inspired FitzRoy to develop charts to allow daily predictions to be made, which he called “weather forecasts.” Fifteen land stations were established to use the telegraph to transmit to him daily reports of weather at set times, and the Crown distributed storm glasses, then known as “FitzRoy’s storm barometers,” to many small fishing communities around the British Isles. The first daily weather reports were published in The Times in 1861, and FitzRoy continued to work on them right up to the date of his death on April 30th, 1865.