The Angra Museum inaugurates on Tuesday the exposition entitled “José Agostinho and Meteorology, Old Instruments from the Angra Meteorological Observatory.”
This exposition was organised in partnership with the Azorean Delegation of the Meteorology Institute can be viewed until the 7th of June in the Sala de Oportunidades. It is part of the celebrations of the International Meteorology Day (23rd March) and evokes the memory of Lieutenant-Coronel José Agostinho (born on 01.03.1888 perished 27.07.1978), a dedicated meteorologist.
A series of conferences will also take place, with the participation of Conceição Tavares, of the Inter-University Centre on the History of Sciences and Technology; Diamantino Henriques, of the Meteorology Institute and Eduardo Brito de Azevedo, of the University of the Azores.
In addition to some museum pieces that belonged to José Agostinho, an eminent Azorean scientist of the 20th Century, other pieces will be shown, such as old meteorological instruments that were used by the José Agostinho Meteorological Observatory of Terceira Island and which are now kept by the Museum.
In essence, these are instruments that illustrate the History of Science in the Azores, with special emphasis granted to the “nefoscópio José Agostinho”, a device that was invented and built by that scientist from Terceira Island that was used to measure the speed and direction of clouds.
The exposition will also be an opportunity to recall that the first meteorological post installed on the island of Terceira was located in a tower of the Old Convent of St. Francis, precisely in the building that today houses the Museum of Angra do Heroísmo. It was José Nogueira Sampaio, in the late 19th Century that installed the Observatory there, before it moved to the Church of the Jesuit College. Later the Observatory was moved by José Agostinho to its final destination in Santa Luzia, in the northern part of the city of Angra do Heroísmo.
This exposition is yet another step in the formation of the recently created Collection on Science and Technique of the Museum of Angra do Heroísmo.