At the university in Berlin he established a meteorological station. He is also credited with the development of a pressure anemometer (1883) and making improvements in regards to rain gauge methodology. In 1883, with chemist Hans Heinrich Landolt, he published the first edition of the Physikalisch-Chemische Tabellen (now referred to as the " Landolt-Börnstein "; it contains more than 400 volumes of data from all areas of the physical sciences). He died in Berlin, aged 61.