The Observatory Experiment

Meteorology in Britain and Its Empire

Simon Naylor

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2024
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009207195
• Subtopic: Technology & Engineering Research & Skills
• Index: Technology & Engineering

In this innovative history of the science of meteorology, Simon Naylor focuses our attention on the spaces in which it was pursued: meteorological observatories. During the nineteenth century, meteorologists established or converted sites where observers and their instruments could be housed, where they collected and analysed data and developed meteorological theories. He examines a number of these sites around the British Empire, along with the governmental, military and commercial networks connecting them. Taking many shapes to capture the weather in different environments, these observatories brought various social groups into contact with the practice of science, including sailors on naval surveying vessels, climbers ascending Scottish peaks, and families checking their rain gauges at home. Through a study of these spaces, Naylor argues for the treatment of meteorology as an experimental observatory science, on which the development of knowledge about local, regional, national and global weather and climate relied.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Observatory Experiments
• 1 Meteorology All at Sea
• 2 Meteorology at the Colonial Observatories
• 3 Mountain Meteorology on Ben Nevis
• 4 Geographies of the Rain
• Conclusion: Historical Geographies of Future Weather
• Bibliography
• Index