Luke Howard: Difference between revisions
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==Career== |
==Career== |
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He was born and lived in [[London]] and educated at the Quaker school in Burford, Oxfordshire. He was a [[Quaker]], later converting to the [[Plymouth Brethren]], and a [[pharmacist]] by profession. In 1793 he set up the pharmaceutical company of |
He was born and lived in [[London]] and educated at the Quaker school in Burford, Oxfordshire. He was a [[Quaker]], later converting to the [[Plymouth Brethren]], and a [[pharmacist]] by profession. In 1793 he set up his own pharmacy in Fleet Street and then went into partnership with [[William Allen (Quaker}|William Allen]] to form the pharmaceutical company of Allen and Howard in London, manufacturing aspirin and quinine. The partnership was dissolved in 1807 and the company eventually (1856) became Howards and Sons. |
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He was elected a [[Fellow]] of the [[Royal Society]] in 1821.<ref> {{cite web |url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=20&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27howard%27%29| title = Library and Archive Catalogue| publisher= Royal Society|accessdate = 18 October 2010}} </ref> He spent the years 1824 to 1852 in [[Ackworth, West Yorkshire|Ackworth]], Yorkshire. |
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==Scientific work== |
==Scientific work== |
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Revision as of 13:03, 18 October 2010
Luke Howard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 28 November 1772 |
| Died | 21 March 1864 |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Meteorology |
Luke Howard FRS (28 November 1772 – 21 March 1864) was a British manufacturing chemist and an amateur meteorologist with broad interests in science.[1] His lasting contribution to science is a nomenclature system for clouds, which he proposed in an 1802 presentation to the Askesian Society.
Career
He was born and lived in London and educated at the Quaker school in Burford, Oxfordshire. He was a Quaker, later converting to the Plymouth Brethren, and a pharmacist by profession. In 1793 he set up his own pharmacy in Fleet Street and then went into partnership with [[William Allen (Quaker}|William Allen]] to form the pharmaceutical company of Allen and Howard in London, manufacturing aspirin and quinine. The partnership was dissolved in 1807 and the company eventually (1856) became Howards and Sons.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821.[2] He spent the years 1824 to 1852 in Ackworth, Yorkshire.
Scientific work
Luke Howard has been called "the father of meteorology" because of his comprehensive recordings of weather in the London area from 1801 to 1841 and his writings, which transformed the science of meteorology.[3] In his late twenties, he wrote the Essay on the Modification of Clouds, which was published in 1803.[4] He named the three principal categories of clouds - cumulus, stratus, and cirrus, as well as a series of intermediate and compound modifications, such as cirrostratus and stratocumulus, in order to accommodate the transitions occurring between the forms. He identified the importance of clouds in meteorology:
Clouds are subject to certain distinct modifications, produced by the general causes which affect all the variations of the atmosphere; they are commonly as good visible indicators of the operation of these causes, as is the countenance of the state of a person's mind or body.[5]
Howard was not the first to attempt a classification of clouds—Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) had earlier proposed a list of descriptive terms in French—but the success of Howard's system was due to his use of universal Latin, as well as to his emphasis on the mutability of clouds. By applying Linnean principles of natural history classification to phenomena as short-lived as clouds, Howard arrived at an elegant solution to the problem of naming transitional forms in nature.
In addition to his seminal work on clouds, Howard contributed numerous papers on other meteorological topics, although with less success. He was also a pioneer in urban climate studies, publishing The Climate of London in 1818-20, which contained continuous daily observations of wind direction, atmospheric pressure, maximum temperature, and rainfall;[6] it also demolished James Hutton's theory of rain, though without suggesting a definitive alternative.[7]
Legacy
Howard's cloud classification had a major influence on the arts as well as on science. Howard corresponded with Goethe, who wrote a series of poems in gratitude to him, including the lines:
- But Howard gives us with his clear mind
- The gain of lessons new to all mankind;
- That which no hand can reach, no hand can clasp
- He first has gained, first held with mental grasp.[7]
Howard also inspired Shelley's poem "The Cloud" and informed John Constable's paintings and studies of skies [8] and the writings and art of John Ruskin, who used Howard's cloud classification in his criticisms of landscape paintings in Modern Painters.[9]
Howard appears in a novel by French writer Stéphane Audeguy titled, La théorie des nuages, winner of the 2005 Prix de l'Académie. Published in the US by Harcourt in 2007 as The Theory of Clouds.[10]
Bruce Castle Museum currently houses an exhibition of Howard's work.[1]. There is an English Heritage blue plaque[11] to Howard at 7 Bruce Grove, Tottenham (the house in which he died, aged 91), on which he is described simply as "Namer of Clouds". The church in Tottenham that he had much involvement with (alongside his son, John Eliot Howard), Brooks Street Meeting House (now Brook Street Chapel) can still be found close to the house, on Tottenham High Road.
His daughter Rachel founded a school in Ackworth, which also contains a Plymouth Brethren burial ground.
References
- ^ "Luke Howard, English chemist and meteoroligist, early 19th century". Retrieved 2008-09-23.
- ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
- ^ Thornes, John. E., John Constable's Skies, The University of Birmingham Press, 1999, ISBN 1-902459-02-4: 189.
- ^ Thornes 1999: 189.
- ^ Thornes 1999: 36.
- ^ Thornes 1999: 203.
- ^ a b Thornes 1999: 190.
- ^ Thornes 1999: 52.
- ^ Thornes 1999: 187.
- ^ Adudeguy, S, The Theory of Clouds, Harcourt Books 2007, http://www.harcourtbooks.com/bookcatalogs/bookpages/9780151014286.asp
- ^ Plaque #190 on Open Plaques
Sources
- Hamblyn, Richard, The Invention of Clouds, London, Picador, 2001.
- Thornes, John.E., John Constable's Skies, The University of Birmingham Press, 1999, ISBN 1-902459-02-4.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
External links
- Luke Howard Biography
- More on Luke Howard
- Claus Bernet (2007). "Luke Howard". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 28. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 827–832. ISBN 978-3-88309-413-7.