On 26/11/2014 19:48, Bernard Burton wrote:
Some weeks ago there was a thread about the penetration of sea spray
inland. I have just come across this discussion in the Met Mag for 1928
where published examples are given from the end of the 19th century. I have
put a pdf file copy on my website in case anyone is interested.

http://www.woksat.info/wwp/seaspray3.pdf


I've just been researching the great storm of 1703 from this OCR'd text
of Daniel Defoe's The Storm, from the microscope inventor

"F. Part of a Letter from Mr. Anthony van Lauwenhoek, F.R,S., giving his
Observations on the late Storm.

Delft, Jan. 8, 1704 N.S.

Sir, — I affirmed in my letter of the 3d of November last past, that
water may be so dash’d and beaten against the banks and dikes by a
strong wind, and divided into such small particles, as to be carried far
up into the land.

Upon the 8th of December, 1703 N.S., we had a dreadful storm from the
south-west, insomuch, that the water mingled with small parts of chalk
and stone, was so dasht against the glass-windows, that many of them
were darkned therewith, and the lower windows of my house, which are
made of very fine glass, and always kept well scower’d, and were not
open’d till 8 a-clock that morning, notwithstanding that they look to
the north-east, and consequently stood from the wind, and moreover, were
guarded from the rain by a kind of shelf or pent-house over them, were
yet so cover’d with the particles of the water which the whirlwind cast
against them, that in less than half an hour they were deprived of most
of their transparency, and, forasmuch as these particles of water were
not quite exhaled, I concluded that it must be sea-water, which the said
storm had not only dasht against our windows, but spread also over the
whole country.

That I might be satisfied herein, I blow’d two small glasses, such as I
thought most proper to make my observations with, concerning the
particles of water that adhered to my windows.

Pressing these glasses gently against my windows, that were covered with
the supposed particles of sea-water, my glasses were tinged with a few
of the said particles.

These glasses, with the water I had thus collected on them, I placed at
about half a foot distance from the candle, I view’d them by my
microscope, reckoning, that by the warmth of the candle, and my face
together, the particles of the said water would be put into such a
motion, that they would exhale for the most part, and the salts that
were in ’em would be expos’d naked to the sight, and so it happened, for
in a little time a great many salt particles did, as it were, come out
of the water, having the figure of our common salt, but very small,
because the water was little from whence those small particles
proceeded; and where the water had lain very thin upon the glass, there
were indeed a great number of salt particles, but so exceeding fine,
that they almost escaped the sight through a very good microscope.

From whence I concluded, that these glass windows could not be brought
to their former lustre, but by washing them with a great deal of water;
for if the air were very clear, and the weather dry, the watery
particles would soon exhale, but the salts would cleave fast to the
glass, which said salts would be again dissolv’d in moist weather, and
sit like dew or mist upon the windows.

And accordingly my people found it when they came to wash the
afore-mentioned lower windows of my house; but as to the upper windows,
where the rain had beat against them, there was little or no salt to be
found sticking upon that glass.

Now, if we consider what a quantity of sea-water is spread all over the
country by such a terrible storm, and consequently, how greatly
impregnated the air is with the same; we ought not to wonder, that such
a quantity of water, being moved with so great a force, should do so
much mischief to chimneys, tops of houses, &c., not to mention the
damages at sea.

During the said storm, and about 8 a-clock in the morning, I cast my eye
upon my barometer, and observed, that I had never seen the quick-silver
so low; but half an hour after the quick-silver began to rise, tho’ the
storm was not at all abated, at least to any appearance; from whence I
concluded, and said it to those that were about me, that the storm would
not last long, and so it happened.

There are some that affirm, that the scattering of this salt water by
the storm will do a great deal of harm to the fruits of the earth; but
for my part I am of a quite different opinion, for I believe that a
little salt spread over the surface of the earth, especially where it is
heavy clay ground, does render it exceeding fruitful; and so it would
be, if the sand out of the sea were made use of to the same purpose.

These letters are too well, and too judiciously written to need any
comment of mine; ’tis plain, the watery particles taken up from the
sprye of the sea into the air, might, by the impetuosity of the winds be
carried a great way,. and if it had been much farther, it would have
been no miracle in my account; and this is the reason, why I have not
related these things, among the extraordinary articles of the storm.

That the air was full of meteors and fiery vapours, and that the
extraordinary motion occasioned the firing more of them than usual, a
small stock of philosophy will make very rational; and of these we have
various accounts, more in some places than in others, and I am apt to
believe these were the lightnings we have been told of; for I am of
opinion that there was really no lightning, such as we call so in the
common acceptation of it; for the clouds that flew with so much violence
through the air, were not, as to my observation, such as usually are
freighted with thunder and lightning, the hurries nature was then in, do
not consist with the system of thunder, which is air pent in between the
clouds; and as for the clouds that were seen here flying in the air,
they were by the fury of the winds so separated, and in such small
bodies that there was no room for a collection suitable, and necessary
to the case we speak of."

plus other reports of salty rain and deposits
from
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/def.../complete.html
fascinating early science
anyone know how to convert lbs of water in their rain tunnels into
modern terms of rain gauge, and what was the pre-Fahrenheit thermometer
scale, includes barometer readings to hundredths of an inch over that
storm period , not that long after Toricelli

"