News: Westboro - Found Radiosonde (26 Oct 1939)

Transcriber: Robert Lipprandt
bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Clark, Novotny

----Source: The Star News (Medford, WI) 10/30/2014

Originally published in the Star News, October 26, 1939

The weather instrument found by Jas. Novotny of Westboro, while hunting in the woods east of that village a week ago Sunday, was a radiosonde which was sent out by the weather bureau at Minneapolis.

The radiosonde is a device used to take weather observations, and a reward is given for its return. The instrument found by Novotny was released Oct. 12 and found Oct. 15.

The radiosondes, also called radiometerographs and radiotelemeter, have been under development of the past three years by the United States Bureau of Standards, the United States Department of Agriculture and Civil Aeronautics Authority and several private and public agencies, according to C. C. Clark, acting chief of the weather bureau.

The radiosondes now used consist of a small hydrogen inflated balloon which carried a small radio transmitter and meterograph unit, weighing about two pounds to a height of 12 to 15 miles at the rate of about 600 feet per minute.