History
The first known rainfall records were kept by the Ancient Greeks, about 500 B.C. This was followed 100 years later by people in India using bowls to record the rainfall. The readings from these were correlated against expected growth, and used as a basis for land taxes. In the Arthashastra, used for example in Magadha, precise standards were set as to grain production. Each of the state storehouses were equipped with a standardised rain gauge to classify land for taxation purposes.
While some (Korean) sources state that the much later cheugugi of Korea was the world's first gauge, other (Korean) sources say that Jang Yeong-sil developed or refined an existing gauge. In 1662, Christopher Wren created the first tipping-bucket rain gauge in Britain.
George James Symons was elected to the council of the British meteorological society in 1863 and made it his life's work to investigate rainfall within the British Isles. He set up a voluntary network of observers, who collected data which was returned to him for analysis. He also collected old rain fall records going back about a hundred years previously. In 1870 he produced an account of rainfall in the British Isles starting in 1725. Due to the ever increasing numbers of observers and Symons prior inspections of the gauges, standardisation of the gauges was necessary. Symons began experiments on new gauges in his own garden. He experimented with variations in size, shape, and height of the gauge. In 1863 he took on the help of Colonel Michael Foster Ward, of Calne Wiltshire, who undertook more extensive investigations. By including Ward and various others around Britain, the investigations continued until 1890. The experiments were remarkable for their planning, execution, and drawing of conclusions. The results of these experiments lead to the progressive adoption of the well known standard gauge, still used by the UK Meteorological Office today. Namely, one made of ..'copper, with a five inch funnel having its brass rim one foot above the ground...'
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