Recent  

The foundation of the Societas Meteorologica Palatina was the most important step toward a physical consideration of meteorology. The organization was exemplary for later observational networks. The data were printed in 12 volumes of ephemerides, being for a long time the most important and reliable database for scientific research. This data pool is not only of historical interest, but it is also used in modern research in many fields.

New Zealand’s first tide-gauge-based sea level measurements were made in 1773 during James Cook’s second voyage of discovery to the South Pacific. The paper examines the quality of those measurements by comparison with tide predictions based on modern information from locations close to the sites of the 1773 observations. The results show that the quality of their work was of at least a high standard. Whilst of little scientific value today, these measurements are historically significant.