Papers on meteorology : relating especially to the climate of Britain, and to the variations of the barometer / by Luke Howard.

  • Howard, Luke, 1772-1864.
Date:
1850-1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Papers on meteorology : relating especially to the climate of Britain, and to the variations of the barometer / by Luke Howard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to l-7 inches. Temperature 85°. The whole occupied just the space between full and new moon; and there are traces of the operation of this periodical influence in other parts of the Register.” “ I shall not presume at present,” Mr. Howard con- cludes, “ to ascribe this variation entirely to planetary influence; but the facts are worthy examination in that respect*.” In the second volume of the “ Climate of London,” published in 1820, the subject of the influence of the Moon on the Barometer was resumed by the Author, under the head “ Of the Lunar Periods.” After noticing summarily the relations of the Rain to the indications of the Baro- meter, he proceeds, “ But furnished only with these general notices, the reader will find himself at a loss to explain many of the movements of the column; to know why it is generally high in severe frost, or with a north-east wind; and why sometimes very low without the expected accompaniment of much rain. He will desire to ac- count for those large sweeps which it makes occasionally, without an obvious regular connexion with the changes of wind or weather; and for its apparent stagnation at other times, about a middle point of elevation f, while the most evident perturbation in the atmosphere is going on, and rain and thunder occur daily. Nor will the sudden depressions attending our southerly gales, and the rapid manner in which the former level is restored after them, escape his inquiry. A clew to the chief of these difficul- ties is furnished by the fact, now sufficiently ascertained, that the atmosphere is subject, like the liquid ocean, to the attractive influence of the Moon’s gravity, and from this cause, operating jointly with the Sun’s attractive power, it has its tides and currents. It was from the supposition of this, not indeed without some ground of observation, that I was induced to cast my Reports on the weather [as originally published] into the form of Lunar Periods.” “ Influence of the Moon on the 'variable pressure of the Atmosphere, on the Tempera- ture. Winds and Pain.” “1. By the Moon’s change of place in her orbit.” Under this head the substance of the paper “ On a periodical Variation of the Ba- * The Register here cited was published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, (Old Sei-ies) vol. vi. p. 9, under the title of “ Meteorological Observations, for one entire year. Made by William Dunbar, Esq., at the Forest four and a half miles east of the river Mississippi in North Lat.” etc. f This small oscillation about a middle point, Mr. Howard has since satisfied himself, is owing to the presence and occasional mixture of two currents, northerly and southerly, between the forces of which the barometer is balanced.