Peilschaalhuisje Westerland

TThis gauge house is one of the two gauge houses on Wieringen. The other is located on the Havenkade in Den Oever. Both gauge houses date from 1919. They were built on behalf of Rijkswaterstaat and were used to record the water level. There were more along the coast. How does the level recorder work? The sounding houses contained a level recorder that worked according to a simple principle. Seawater came through a pipe into a well in the house, in which there was a float that moved up and down with the changing water levels. The float actuated a pen that wrote on a sheet of paper stretched on a roll. A clock powered the roll of paper. An official regularly came to wind the clock and change the paper on the roll. The recorded water levels were sent to Rijkswaterstaat. The gauge houses on the former island of Wieringen were built before the construction of the Korte Afsluitdijk towards Van Ewijcksluis and the large Afsluitdijk towards Friesland. This provided insight into the influence of the construction of those dikes on the water levels. After the Second World War, the computer took over the measuring work and the houses became superfluous. Valuation The gauge house is of cultural and architectural-historical value. It is a well-preserved example of the gauge houses from the first quarter of the 20th century that were built by the Dutch government. It is an element in the history of water management in the Netherlands Sources – Register of monuments via www.monumentenregister.cultureelerfgoed.nl – Wikipedia via www.wikipedia.nl