§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade, Has he received any reply from the Meteorological Office regarding the invention of Mr. B. A. Collins; and, if the apparatus has been rejected, will he give the reason for such rejection?
THE SECRETARY (Baron HENRY DE WORSTS) (Liverpool, East Toxteth)The Board of Trade have received a letter from the Meteorological Office on a proposal made by various persons, and recently renewed by Mr. B. A. Collins, for the mooring of buoys in the Atlantic and communicating by means of mechanical and electrical apparatus with the shore, so as to record the height of the barometer fixed on the buoy. The proposal to obtain telegraphic reports of weather and other phenomena in the open sea from buoys furnished with automatic instruments is not new, and has been before the Meteorological Authorities since 1872. Parliament has not, however, placed at the disposal of the State any funds either for making experiments in the matter, or for establishing such a system should experiments prove of value. As regards the particular form of apparatus proposed by Mr. Collins, the Board of Trade have received no opinion from the Meteorological Office. The Office have not rejected it, as they have no power and no funds to enable them to take steps to test it and so enable them to form any practical opinion on it.