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Tuesday, November 7, 1972
EMERGENCY POWER SUPPLIES FOR ROYAL OBSERVATORY
More than half a million dollars is to be spent on the installation
of three emergency generators at the Royal Observatory headquarters and
at two of its other weather stations King's Park and Tate's Cairn.
The observatory's headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui houses a great
variety of electronic equipment for measuring time, earthquakes, wind
speeds and receiving and despatching weather data.
"If we are to have an accurate picture of the weather conditions
at all times, it is essential that all the instruments should operate
without any interruption," a spokesman for the Royal Observatory said.
He recalled that during the blackout of the Kowloon peninsula
during Typhoon Rose in 1971, officers of the department had to work under
inadequate lighting, while the air conditioning, which helps to maintain a
constant temperature for certain instruments, had to be turned off
because of a need to conserve electricity.
"This was due mainly to the limited power capacity of the existing
emergency generator, which was installed some 13 years ago," he said.
"The installation of a 150 KW stand-by generator at the headquarters
means that disruption to our work during power failures will be cut to a
minimum."
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