Brilliant trick, how to measure air humidity in ancient weather forecast

Brilliant trick, how to measure air humidity in ancient weather forecast

Although the ancients did not find the scientific relationship between humidity and human health, they also realized that humidity had a lot of influence on people's life and study, so they knew "measuring humidity" for a long time and came up with a wonderful method.

Observing air humidity should appear in the meteorological forecast work in the pre-Qin period, and it was recorded in writing in the Western Han Dynasty. There is a saying in Huainanzi Ben Jing Xun: "The sound of Lei Zhen, bells and drums can be written; The change of wind and rain can be known by temperament. "

When this sentence was revealed, people had already noticed the humidity problem. Why? Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty said in "On the Balance and Changes": "So, when it rains, ants move, hill insects come out, the strings are slow and the disease is fixed." The "slow chord" here is caused by the change of humidity. Tian Wu Jia Xing in Lou Yuanli at the end of the Yuan Dynasty has a concrete expression of this.

A well-known proverb is recorded in the book, which is called "sunny and dry, drums ring, and the rain rings." Lou Yuanli commented on this: "If the pipa and the harp are harmoniously tuned together, then God must be a little naive to do so;" If the soldiers are not coordinated, the yin will change, because of the climate. If the noble strings suddenly widen, it will rain because the piano bed is wet. "

How did the ancient weather forecast measure the air humidity? The ancients did a great job!

It probably means that the ancients could know the humidity of the air by listening to the sound of the piano and predict Yin and Yang. If the strings are loose and the melody is inaccurate, it is because the air humidity has increased, indicating that the weather has changed and it will rain in the future. It can be seen that in Qin and Han dynasties, people had an accurate understanding of air humidity, and they knew the change of air humidity through the change of strings.

Observing the air humidity through the change of strings was used until the Qing Dynasty. The "dehumidifier" invented by Huang Lvzhuang, the inventor of Tomb-Sweeping Day, is made by using the principle of "rope absorbing moisture". It is quite effective, and its sensitivity is no worse than that of modern humidity: "There is a needle inside, which can rotate left and right, dry left and wet right, unscathed, and can predict the weather." However, modern scientists can no longer make such a "hygrometer".

1658 Ferdinand Verbist, a Belgian who came to China to preach, also made a "humidifier" with deer tendons during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. It should be noted that the choice of animal tendons is very particular. Animals should not be too old. The smaller an animal is, the more sensitive it is to humidity and the more flexible it is to measure humidity. Ferdinand Verbist's humidifier uses deer tendons.

In order to make accurate observation, the "hygrometer" was used in the Western Han Dynasty, which was more than 1000 years earlier than the hygrometer designed by Peter Finch in the 5th century. This hygrometer uses the principle of strong hygroscopicity and balance of carbon to measure humidity.

China was the first country to invent the humidity measuring instrument. Records of the Historian Tianguan Book records: "The winter solstice is short, the county (hanging) is covered with charcoal, and the charcoal moves ... only knowing the sky, it must be beautiful."

In the Western Han Dynasty, people had the custom of "county soil charcoal": before the solar term from winter to solar term, soil and charcoal were hung on both sides of the balance, and the change of humidity was judged by observing the rise and fall of both ends of the balance. If the air is dry, the moisture in charcoal will be released quickly, becoming lighter and the charcoal end will rise; If the air humidity increases, the opposite is true.

This is the so-called "Huainanzi Astronomical Training": "Dry charcoal is light, wet charcoal is heavy." "Huai Nan Zi Tai Xun" further explains the working principle of hygrometer: "The husband is wet but does not see his shape, and the charcoal is heavy; The wind is coming, you can't see its image, and the wood has moved.