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