Nicolaas Kruik

Who was Nicolaas Kruik?

Nicolaas Kruik, also known as Nicolaes Krukius or most commonly by the Latinized Nicolaus Samuelis Cruquius, was a Dutch land surveyor, cartographer, astronomer and weatherman. He is remembered most today for the Museum De Cruquius bearing his name.

He was a perfectionist who liked to measure things and he calculated temperature measurements in Fahrenheit from 1706 to 1734. His historical calculations are still used today by the KNMI, the Dutch meteorological institute. He not only measured weather changes in wind speed, rainfall, air pressure, temperature, and humidity, but also measured sea level. His method of visualizing planes of water level to illustrate contours of depth in his map of the Merwede was the first of its kind. He was an advocate of pumping out the Haarlemmermeer, which was done a century after his death.