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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    PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY. A METEOROLOGICAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1820 IN THE VICINITY OF LONDON*. The points most interesting in a practical view of the weather are the depth of Bain and the Mean Temperature; in other words, the question whether the season will be a warm or a cold, a dry or a wet one. Were there no fixed law of variation in these respects, it would answer little purpose to keep meteorological registers; but as the evidence becomes stronger, the more the subject is examined, in favour of the opinion that our seasons do vary in their character, periodically, from year to year, it becomes an object of no small importance to present meteorological results in such a form as shall best exhibit them in connection with the astronomical changes which may be thought most likely to influence the periods of variation. It is for a digest of this kind for the year 1820 that I have to claim the indulgence of the Royal Society. This paper will embrace the results of two distinct sets of observations on the Ba- rometer, Thermometer and Rain, the most part of which have been made by assist- ants, in my behalf, at the laboratory, Stratford, five miles N.E. from Somerset House ; and at my own residence at Tottenham Green, about the same distance north. It will not be thought a disadvantage, I trust, that the details of the former set, of which I here (p. 12a) introduce the results alone, are already before the public in a monthly journalf. I find that frequent publication of the observations tends to secure atten- tion and diligence from the observer; and it is manifest that materials thus given cannot be tampered with, when the annual results come to be made up, either to supply defects in observation, or to make the facts bend in any way to theory. * Read before the Royal Society on the 10th of May 1821, under the title of “ Some Remarks on Meteorology,” as stated in the usual official letter to the author from Taylor Combe, Esq., at that time one of the Secretaries, dated July 6, 1821 ; and as recorded also in the Annals of Philosophy, second series, for 1821 (vol. i.), p. 468. [t In the Annals of Philosophy, from February 1820 to February 1821 ; first series, vols. xv. and xvi.; second series, vol. i.] a