Today I was working with a Nijmegen newspaper from 1923 in the archives or public records and found this item about river levels, temperatures and barometric pressure. Here it comes, in Dutch and in English.
Nijmeegsche Courant 7 februari 1923: Waterhoogte, Temperatuur, enz. Opname op 7 Febr. 's Morgens 8 uur. Nijmegen 12.04 M. + NAP Was in 24 uur 5 c.M. Keulen 5.71 M. + 0. Val in 24 uur 38 c.M. Grave 10.42 + NAP. Val in 24 uur 8 c.M. Therm. Nijm. 8 uur 34, 12 uur 42, 4 uur 42. Barometer Nijm. 12 uur 754, 4 uur 753 Translated, everything is copied exactly, zo you will see what are now incorrect symbols. Copying old texts must be done exactly; that's a rule for historians and people working in public records. River levels, Temperatures etc. Taken on (1923) February 7 at eight o clock (in the morning) Nijmegen river at 12.04 M. asl; rise in 24 hours 5 c.M. Cologne 5.71 M.; no rise; fall in 24 hours 38 c.M. Grave* 10.71 M. asl; fall in 24 hours 8 c.M. Therm. Nijmegen at 8 o'clock 34; at noon 42 and at 4 o'clock (16:00 h) 42 Pressure Nijmegen at 8 o'clock 754; at 4 o'clock (16:00 h) 753 The temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit and air pressure is in mmHg. We used metric and Fahrenheit; that combination would now be unthinkable. One of Fahrenheit's own thermometers is in a scientific museum at Leyden. I saw it there, still working and giving a temperature that matched the 20 degrees on modern thermometers in the building. In the same newspaper I read a large ad for textile and clothing in which it was priced by the old ell of 69 cm, with its binary subdivisions. Some items were sold per 5/4, that means 5/4 th of an old ell. The old ell died with World War II, the Fahrenheit scale withered slowly away and died around 1950. It held out for a longer time when chicken eggs were artificially hatched in machines. Grave is a town west of Nijmegen. Cologne measured from its mean level, not asl. Han Historian of Dutch Metrication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
