With The Weather Book, Robert Fitzroy created an introduction to meteorology for the everyday Victorian citizen based on up-to-date scientific methodology. Luke Howard’s classification of clouds is included to help readers identify the types of clouds they can observe. The book was part of Fitzroy’s efforts to disseminate new scientific methods to study the weather. He made the weather forecast a daily addition to the newspapers and supported the establishment of what would later become the Meteorological Office.
Printed by Franciscus Hackius Leiden, 1648 [B.S.] 95 With overseas expansion and colonisation new data and approaches to studying the weather emerged. Francis Bacon’s Natural and Experimental History of Winds aimed for a new approach to meteorology by forefronting the observation of natural phenomena, analysing how the wind interacts with machinery, such as ships and windmills. The Baconian scientific method sought to create a more functional approach to nature, in which humans can harness the power of the winds for their own gain.
The second impression augmented by the author, printed by Thomas Gemini & Co London, 1556 [D.-L.L.] M⁰ [Digges] SR Countless generations have studied the sky to understand and predict the weather. This text by the mathematician Leonard Digges includes ways of forecasting through the planets’ positions and conjunctions. It is an example of ‘astro-meteorology’, which combined contemporary knowledge of astrology, astronomy and weather folklore. Although such thinking was dismissed as magical even by some of its contemporaries, it used table calculations and paper instruments which resembled later scientific methods. Contemporary science accepts that other planets affect the Earth but what that means for the weather is still not entirely understood.
Understanding extreme weather phenomena in the colonies was of national interest to the British Empire. Sea captain and colonial officer in India, Henry Piddington, responded to this need with his hornbook (a title taken from children’s primers) educating sailors in the workings of what he named ‘cyclones’ and offering tools for first-hand data collection. These transparent cards would allow sailors to map a storm’s track based on the wind’s rotation: counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern.
Understanding extreme weather phenomena in the colonies was of national interest to the British Empire. Sea captain and colonial officer in India, Henry Piddington, responded to this need with his hornbook (a title taken from children’s primers) educating sailors in the workings of what he named ‘cyclones’ and offering tools for first-hand data collection. These transparent cards would allow sailors to map a storm’s track based on the wind’s rotation: counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern.
Weather lore and knowledge were disseminated in books such as The Knowledge of Things Unknown which has this woodcut image on its title page. It shows a figure looking up for guidance to the ancient Greek scholar Claudius Ptolemy who had a significant impact on mathematical and astronomical thinking in medieval and early modern Europe. The text compiles theories on the origin of different weather phenomena and gives guidance on how its user might “read” them with help of knowledge passed down by “ancient authorities”.
Almanacs were one of the biggest mass market products of their time. They are annual publications with information on subjects of daily use to their readers. In 1838 Murphy’s Weather Almanac correctly predicted that the coldest day of the year would fall on 20 January, which made its sales sore. An unknown annotator of this copy has checked its predictions for accuracy. Popular almanacs producing accurate knowledge posed a challenge to elite scientific meteorologists at the time.
GARNERIN's BALLOON. Sung by Mr. Johnnot, AT ASTLEY AMPHIMHEATRE. of For the wonder of wonders is now a balloon. E'en the fpectres are nothing, tho' dancing in fhrouds, To the men who went up t'other day in the clouds. Sing tanta ra ra ra ftrange fight. As they mounted above, Johnny Bull from below, Cried, Lord! who'd have thought it, fee where they go! Look look; don't they rife like a pair of fky-rockets? While the diver's keen eye kept a look on their pockets Sing tantarara, &cc. Men, women, and children; fee, fee, how they jam While the voyagers dine on the chickens and ham; Who, tho they could fee all below like a pufh Epping Foreft but look'd like a goofeberry bufh.- Sing tantarare, &c. Sixty miles, like brave fellows, they trufted to fate, And went all the time at a devil of a rate When at length coming down near Colchefter plains, Hodge fwore if they did that he'd blow out their brains Sing tantarara, At laft, after buffeting hills, roads, and trees, Terra firma receiv'd them, their journey to eafe; When the first houfe they call'd at, to claim a protection Says the maſter, Keep off; I'll not vote this election. Sing tantarara, &c, Then, goffips, to gattle, nor keep your tongues mute, Of the famous balloon; and likewife parachute; And while the air fubject, enlivens your gin In gratitude drink to Monfieur Garnerin. Sing tantarara, &c. CHIL COLCHESTER: Prated by I. Mariden, for S. Carpue, London.
On Wednesday 26 November 1703, Daniel Defoe nearly died near his London home when part of a neighbouring house collapsed in a week-long hurricane that hit the south of England and the English Channel. Regarded as the first substantial work of modern journalism, he published this book the following year, after advertising in the London Gazette for eyewitness accounts. In sharp contrast to ‘clinical’ colonial reports of weather disasters, Defoe foregrounds stories of courage, selfishness and suffering by those who experienced the Great Storm.
