[ { "id": 207020, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "FATHER ERNESTO GHERZI, S.J., 1886 - 1973 AN APPRECIATION\n\nG. J. BELL*\n\nIn the Bulletin de Geophysique No. 34 from the College Jean-de-Brebeuf, Montreal there was enclosed a notice of the death of Father Ernesto Gherzi, S.J. at Saint-Jerome, Quebec. He died on 6 December 1973 at the age of 87 years and 4 months. Fr Gherzi was a very well known and popular figure on the China coast between the years 1910 and 1954. He made notable contributions to the science and practice of seismology and meteorology while at Zikawei Observatory, Shanghai from where he operated an efficient typhoon warning service. He was a colourful character who made a great impression on all those who met him and he is remembered with affection by very many mariners and aviators—both military and civil—who served in the Far East in the thirty years prior to 1954.\n\nEARLY YEARS\n\nFr Gherzi was born in San Remo, Italy on 8 August 1886. In October 1903 he joined the Society of Jesus, an order whose members had made great contributions to geophysics and meteorology at their Observatories at Zikawei and Manila. He was posted to Zikawei for the period 1910-13 after which he went to England to work with Appleton on ionospheric studies for the Admiralty, London. He was ordained in England in June 1916 and returned to China in October 1920 to start his long scientific career in the famous meteorological, seismological and magnetic observatory at Zikawei.\n\nThe Zikawei Observatory was supported by grants from the Chinese Customs, the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, the Shanghai municipality and the telegraph companies; in return it provided time signals, weather forecasts and magnetic data for shipping. Fr Gherzi produced annual summaries of typhoon tracks for 1926 and for the years 1928 to 1940; they were addressed to the\n\n* Mr. Bell has been Director of the Royal Observatory, Hong Kong, since 1965. This article first appeared in Weather, Volume 29, No. 5 (May 1974).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207023, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "88\n\nG. J. BELL\n\nhis death also carried his last paper on this subject (and one on atmospheric electricity).\n\nWhen receiving weather reports by radio from ships near the central regions of typhoons he noticed (1925) that radio communication was relatively undisturbed by atmospherics—the crackles and bangs due to lightning discharges. This point was not really appreciated by others until the post-war years when it was found that tropical cyclones could not be reliably tracked with equipment designed to locate lightning flashes (sferics equipment). Some typhoons do contain thunderstorms—they can be almost continuous in the eye wall—but others have none. The reasons for this variable behaviour have not yet been adequately explained.\n\nDuring the war years Fr Gherzi noticed coincidences between certain characteristics of the ionosphere and the air mass prevailing around the sounding station. He considered that the events were not unrelated and went on to use the association as an aid to weather forecasting (1946, 1950). Unfortunately, the matter has proved more complicated than Fr Gherzi implies in his papers and the method has not been adopted for general use.\n\nINTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL INTERESTS\n\nIn the Annual Report of the Director, Royal Observatory, Hong Kong for 1927, Mr Claxton wrote: 'Father Gherzi of the Zikawei Observatory, after patient experiments and with the utmost goodwill, has recently inaugurated a short-wave broadcast service by which we obtained at 9 hr 45 min the 6 hr observations from seven stations from the Yangsi and North China. The thanks of all concerned are due to Fr Gherzi for these valuable observations'. By personally receiving the Morse signals from ships and other countries Fr Gherzi helped to maintain good communication standards in the region; he would send terse, admonitory notes to wireless operators or meteorological services who did not follow good practices or keep to schedules. His Observatory was represented at the very first regional meeting of Directors of weather services which was held at Hong Kong in 1930 to decide on codes for signalling tropical cyclones and transmitting weather reports. Subsequently, in April 1934, Fr Gherzi and Mr Jeffries, Director of the Royal Observatory, Hong Kong travelled to Manila together to decide, with the Director of the Manila Observatory Fr M. Selga, on standardised storm warning procedures. Fr Gherzi also attended the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207024, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 95, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "Fr. ERNESTO GHERZI, S.J.\n\n89\n\nfirst meeting of the International Meteorological Organization's Regional Association II which was held at Hong Kong in January 1937.*\n\nIn May 1949 he attended the Conference on Storm Warning Procedures at Manila, which established relevant definitions, standards and procedures for the World Meteorological Organization. However, the revolution in China and its associated nationalism had overtaken Zikawei (1947) and he was refused permission to return to China. The then Director of the Royal Observatory Hong Kong, Mr Heywood, found a place for Fr Gherzi on the staff and he worked there until asked by the Portuguese authorities to help reorganise and equip the Macau Observatory.\n\nWhile in Hong Kong, he finished his two-volume work on the 'Meteorology of China'. Certain sections of the draft manuscript, particularly those on tropical cyclones, were hotly disputed by some staff members and led to much animated discussion. The volumes were eventually published in Macau in 1951 and whilst they suffer, in places, from being out of date and lacking in accuracy—Fr Gherzi's notes remained in China—the books were a good record of the climatology of the Far East and of the experiences of himself and others in typhoons.\n\nIt was during the years that Fr Gherzi spent in Hong Kong and Macau that I was fortunate enough to get to know him quite well. He was a competent organist and after work I would sometimes accompany him to the Rosary Church to listen to his playing—Bach was a favourite—or he would come to my quarters to hear records and take a considerable number of glasses of sherry—his preferred drink. He was game for most activities and his majestic figure often looked out of place in the rudimentary sports car or sailing junk that I used in those days. Over the years, Fr Gherzi developed a technique of using cocktail parties to good advantage; on joining them he would charge his glass with sherry and, whilst stroking his grandee's beard, look for the most senior naval person present. He would then disarmingly engage the poor fellow in typhoon talk and eventually succeed in getting him to donate a radar or other piece of electronic equipment of which the good Father was in need.\n\n*This paragraph records two 'firsts' for Hong Kong in the field of international meteorology. Hong Kong is a member of the World Meteorological Organization in its own right on account of these early developments.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 } ]