Dr G. C. Simpson 239 



complete the wonderful organization through which come 

 our weather forecasts, for the Meteorological Office also 

 maintains five first-class observatories at strategic points 

 in the country. These observatories are at Kew, Esk- 

 dalemuir, Aberdeen, Lerwick, and Valentia (all names 

 which figure frequently in weather news), and here further 

 meteorological . and other observations are taken by 

 experts, with the aid of self-recording instruments. 



Co-ordinating the work of all these outposts is the 

 Meteorological Office itself, with its staff of scientists 

 whose names are known to meteorologists the world 

 over. 



The Director of the Department is Dr G. C. Simpson, 

 C.B., F.R.S., who has carried out meteorological research 

 in places as far apart as Lapland, Egypt, India, and the 

 Antarctic. In the last-named region he served with 

 Captain Scott's expedition, and secured valuable informa- 

 tion by the use of balloons. 



Born in Derby, and trained at Manchester, Dr Simpson 

 has done work which has greatly increased our knowledge 

 of meteorological phenomena. The results of his research 

 into radiation are too technical to be explained here, but 

 they have changed accepted views concerning the four 

 great Ice Ages of the world, and the theories which he has 

 advanced as the result of experiments in connexion with 

 atmospheric electricity and lightning discharges have 

 done much to stimulate further research into what we 

 may call the science of thunderstorms. 



A speaker on the occasion when Dr Simpson was 

 presented with the Symons Memorial Medal for 1930 

 declared : 



His studies indicate that during a thunderstorm non-conduct- 

 ing clouds are floating within a conducting atmosphere, thus 

 completely reversing accepted ideas. As to the origin of elec- 

 trical energy during a thunderstorm, he finds that the breaking- 

 drop theory could account for the generation of the supply. 



