Predicting the Weather: Victorians and the Science of MeteorologyVictorian Britain, with its maritime economy and strong links between government and scientific enterprises, founded an office to collect meteorological statistics in 1854 in an effort to foster a modern science of the weather. But as the office turned to prediction rather than data collection, the fragile science became a public spectacle, with its forecasts open to daily scrutiny in the newspapers. And meteorology came to assume a pivotal role in debates about the responsibility of scientists and the authority of science. Studying meteorology as a means to examine the historical identity of prediction, Katharine Anderson offers here an engrossing account of forecasting that analyzes scientific practice and ideas about evidence, the organization of science in public life, and the articulation of scientific values in Victorian culture. In Predicting the Weather, Anderson grapples with fundamental questions about the function, intelligibility, and boundaries of scientific work while exposing the public expectations that shaped the practice of science during this period. A cogent analysis of the remarkable history of weather forecasting in Victorian Britain, Predicting the Weather will be essential reading for scholars interested in the public dimensions of science. |
Contents
CHAPTER ONE | 15 |
CHAPTER TWO | 41 |
CHAPTER THREE | 83 |
CHAPTER FOUR | 131 |
CHAPTER FIVE | 171 |
CHAPTER SIX | 235 |
CONCLUSION | 285 |
Bibliography | 295 |
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Predicting the Weather: Victorians and the Science of Meteorology Katharine Anderson Limited preview - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Airy Papers argued astrology astronomer atmosphere authority BAAS barometer Blanford Board of Trade Britain British Meteorological Cambridge Charles Piazzi Smyth charts climate cloud Cloud Atlas collective Committee contemporary critical debates developed Edinburgh edited Empire Essays evidence famine Fitzroy's Galton George Airy George James Symons Glaisher Greenwich Herschel History of Science imperial India Indian Meteorology instruments James James Glaisher John Journal Kew Observatory knowledge Lockyer London lunar magnetic Meteorological Department meteorological observations Meteorological Office meteorological science modern Morrison Nineteenth Century numbers Oxford Parliamentary Papers phenomena Philosophical photographs physical political popular practical precision probability prophecy published questions rainband rainfall record Report Robert Fitzroy Royal Meteorological Society Royal Society Ruskin Sabine scientific culture social solar spectroscope statistics storm warnings sunspots Symons Symons's telegraph Tempest Prognosticator theory University Press visual Weather Book weather forecasting weather map weather prediction weather prophets weather wisdom Whewell William wind Zadkiel