Abstract
TILL the year 1862, when my first experiments were made by the use of the balloon, our knowledge of the.temperature of the air was almost entirely confined to within four or five feet of the earth's surface, and the theory that the temperature was always lower at high elevations, and that the decrease of temperature with increase of elevation was at the rate of 1° Fahrenheit for every 300 feet of elevation was generally received and acted upon. These theories were found not to be at all times true, and the assumption of the decrease of 1° of temperature in every increase of 300 feet of elevation was proved to be erroneous in every balloon ascent I have made; in some a decrease of 1° and more than 1° was experienced within 100 feet, and there is ho doubt that, considering the quickness of motion on leaving the earth, the decrease at such times was really 2° or 3°, or more, within the space of 100 feet.
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On Nocturnal Increase of Temperature with Elevation 1 . Nature 16, 450–451 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/016450a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/016450a0