Luke HowardAnd the invention of clouds
Luke Howard: 1772-1864
Precursors to Howard
1660s: Robert Hooke
“Watr’d” “Waved” “Checker’d” “Hazy” “Hairy”
1780s: Royal Society of Manheim
• “streaky”• “milky”
Prince-Elector Karl Theodor of Manheim
1802: LaMarck
“Hazy”
“Torn”
Height differentiation
Enter Luke Howard
Occupational conundrum
An era of Natural Philosophy
William Allen: Kindred spirit
The Askesian Society
Howard’s 1802 cloud classification breakthrough
"there are three simple and distinct modifications, in any one of which the aggregate of minute drops called a cloud may be formed, increase to its greatest extent, and finally decrease and disappear".
www.cloudman.com/luke/056-lanv.jpg
www.cloudman.com/luke1/055alt.jpg
www.rmets.org/images/weather/howard_forms.jpg
www.rmets.org/images/weather/howard_forms.jpg
A paradigm shift in cloud watching
“clouds could now be read more clearly, as the visible signs of vast atmospheric processes.”
Luke Howard’s Legacy
• Instant publication in Philosophy Magazine
• Popularized by Goethe’s poetry
• 1873 “global bureaucracy of naming”
• 1st International Meteorological Congress
Luke Howard: 1772-1864