Casella 5-Inch Snowdon Rain Gauge 

1956 Handbook of Met Instruments

This is a Casella Snowdon Rain  Gauge.  The 5 inch gauge is the standard manual gauge design used in the UK since the late 1800s.  It was first described by G J Symons in the 1864 issue of 'British Rainfall'.  It is shown in the 1912, 1948, and 1958 Casella instrument catalogs, available on this website.

I'm not sure of the date of manufacture of this rain gauge.  The 1958 Casella catalog says it is 18 inches tall, but this instrument measures 16.8 inches tall.  The 1948 Casella catalog says 17 inches, and the 1912 catalog (in French) says 43 cm (16.9 inches).  I have a Casella glass measuring cylinder for it, used to externally measure the rainfall  I don't have the internal glass bottle. The funnel includes a 4 inch straight section to prevent raindrop outsplashing.   The term 'Snowdon' at first appled to the funnel design.

Measuring Cylinder

It was normally installed with the lower 6 inches buried in the soil.  It is similar to the UK Met Office Mk II rain guage except that the latter has a splayed base for increased stability. 

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