Railroaders' Nostalgia > Really dumb question

Who was Ringleman and what was his scientific background to develop this scale and etcetc? did he come from a railroad background  and did his scale pertain to sny other industries?
C

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

Carol : here is a short answer,  Be safeThe Ringelmann scale is a scale for measuring the apparent density or opacity of smoke.[1][2] It was developed by a French professor of agricultural engineering Maximilien Ringelmann of La Station d'Essais de Machines in Paris, who first specified the scale in 1888.[3][4]The scale has 5 levels of density inferred from a grid of black lines on a white surface which, if viewed from a distance, merge into known shades of grey. Shade 1 is slightly grey and is usually categorized by air pollution boards as acceptable. It corresponds to an opacity of 20%. Shades 2, 3, 4 and 5 correspond to opacities of 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% (completely black) and are usually considered to be "black smoke" by air pollution boards of most countries.[5]

Thank you!!!!!!

C

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA