6i4 



NATURE 



[February 5, 1920 



society is an occasion on which we may commemorate 

 those of our countrymen wlio have contributed to the 

 organisation and development of meteorological 

 science. From the time ot the invention of the baro- 

 meter by Torricelli in 1643, proceeding in chronological 

 order, we find examples of the experimental in- 

 vestigation of the properties of air in the work of the 

 Hon. Robert Boyle (1627), natural philosopher and 

 philanthropist; ot the design of meteorological instru- 

 ments in Robert Hooke (1635), the first demonstrator 

 of the Royal Society; of the compilation of observa- 

 tions at sea in the remarkable discourse on winds by 

 William Dampier (1652), sailor and buccaneer; of 

 meteorological theory in Edmund Halley (1656), 

 natural philosopher and Astronomer Royal ; in George 

 Hadley (1686), a lawyer who explained the trade 

 winds; and James Hutton (1726), a physician who 

 developed a theory of rain. 



Next come Richard Kirwan (1733), a weatherwise 

 Irish gentleman, "consulted about the weather by 

 half the farmers of Ireland," with ideas about the 

 meteorology of the globe on the basis of the distribu- 

 tion of temperature; Charles Wells (1757), physician 

 of St. Thomas's Hospital, who elaborated the theory 

 of dew; John Dalton (1766), famous for his atomic 

 theory, teacher of mathematics and natural philosopher 

 of Manchester, who put the theory of water-vapour 

 in the atmosphere upon a physical basis, a lifelong 

 meteorological observer, and a student of the aurora, 

 the height of which he measured successfully; Luke 

 Howard (1772), a successful manufacturing chemist, 

 an assiduous meteorologist who classified clouds, 

 introduced automatic records of the barometer, dis- 

 coursed on the climate of London, and studied the 

 influence of the phases of the mOon ; Admiral Sir 

 Francis Beaufort (1774), Hydrographer of the Navy, 

 who devised the Beaufort scale of wind-force and the 

 Beaufort alphabetical notation for weather at sea ; Sir 

 Edward Sabine (1788), Royal Engineer, secretary and, 

 later, president of the Royal Society, and also general 

 secretary of the British Association, who obtained the 

 co-operation of those three great agencies in the mag- 

 netic survey of the British Isles, the trigonometrical 

 survey of India, and the establishment of magnetic 

 observatories in Toronto, St. Helena, the Cape, India, 

 and elsewhere in the British Dominions, and of 

 meteorological observations at all the foreign and 

 Colonial stations of the Royal Engineer? and Army 

 Medical Department, and who lived long enough to 

 become the first chairman of committee of the 

 Meteorological Office; John Frederic Daniell (1790), 

 professor of chemistry, the inventor of the Daniell 

 cell and the Daniell dew-point hygrometer, a meteoro- 

 logical essayist, and a writer on artificial climates for 

 horticulture; and, finally, William Reid (i7qi), major- 

 general of the Royal Engineers, and Henry Piddington 

 (ivo'?), merchant seaman, author of "The Sailor's 

 Horn Book," who made most notable contributions 

 to the analysis of the phenomena of what the latter 

 first called "cyclones," and are now in their 

 various forms the familiar elements of interest in the 

 dailv charts of weather prepared by meteorological 

 offices all over the world. William Whewell (1796), 

 the omniscient Master of Trinity, may perhaps 

 be added as representing anemometry, thus carrying 

 on the story of weather science as developed by those 

 born before the end of the eighteenth century, and so 

 bringing the history to the middle of the nineteenth, 

 when the society was founded. 



These names and histories show from what various 

 sources meteorology has derived its ideas, its initia- 

 tive, and its support. In the future, as in the past, 

 the science must preserve its wide outlook. 



NO. 2623, VOL. IO4I 



THE REDUCTION OF WAVE ACTION IN 

 HARBOURS. 



''P HE important question of the best means of effecting ] 

 ■^ the maximum reduction of wave action in harbour j 

 areas formed the subject of four papers read before ' 

 the Institution of Civil Engineers on January 13. ) 

 Next to affording the readiest and safest accessibility 

 under extremely adverse conditions of weather and 

 tide, the exclusion of storm waves, or rather their 

 reduction within limits of harmlessness, is the most 

 pressing concern of the harbour engineer. Unfor- 

 tunately, the conditions essential to the attainment 

 of the former desideratum are not often conducive to 

 the realisation of the latter. The criticism has been 

 passed on at least one modern harbour of importance 

 that in tempestuous weather the sea is as rough 

 inside as outside. Where large areas have to be 

 enclosed in order to afford the necessary accommoda- 

 tion for shipping, it is a matter of considerable 

 difficulty to provide simultaneously the equally neces- 

 sary degree of shelter. 



Four river harbours — those at the mouths of the 

 Tyne, the Wear, the Esk, and the Blyth, all on the 

 north-east coast of England — were under considera- 

 tion. In the first two the principle of wide encircling 

 piers had been adopted, with an entrance width on 

 the Tyne of 1200 ft. and on the Wear of 700 ft. ; in 

 the second two there is the contrast of a compara- 

 tively narrow: way or passage from 200 ft. to 400 ft. 

 in width between fairly, or roughly, parallel piers, 

 with intercepting jetties, or wave-traps, at intervals 

 in their lengths. The semicircular arms afford ex- 

 panding areas of large proportions, wherein the 

 entering waves are diffused and a large amount of 

 their energy dissipates itself harmlessly on spending 

 beaches flanking the entrance to the inner harbour. 

 On the other hand, the openings provided in the 

 overlapping sides of parallel piers deflect a certain 

 portion of the v/ave from its course and pass it out 

 again to sea. Both systems have their merits, 

 and all the authors claimed that the desired 

 results had been obtained by the method adopted 

 in the particular cases. At Blyth sea-waves of 

 10 ft. to 12 ft. in height at the pierheads are 

 reduced to 6 in. to 24 in. in mid-harbour, while 

 at Sunderland the factor of wave-reduction is 65 per 

 cent. 



In forming a judgment on the respective claims, 

 it must be borne in mind that much depends on the 

 character of the port. Obviously, an internal wa\e 

 action which might be without prejudicial effect on a 

 large mercantile liner might be fatal to small fishing 

 craft. It is difficult also to detach the problem from 

 the particular conditions of site and coastal confisura- 

 tion. Spending beaches are no doubt admirable 

 adjuncts to a harbour, but they are not always avail- 

 able, nor are the financial resources of ports always 

 commensurate with bold and ample schemes of ac- 

 commodation. With the means at his disposal, the 

 task of the engineer is to secure the best compromise 

 possible : an adequate degree of tranquillity combined 

 with a serviceable entrance width. Circumstances 

 may favour one method or the other. Even after 

 general lines have been laid down, it will certainly 

 be found wise to proceed tentatively and cautiously 

 in the execution of the design. Much useful 

 information can be gained during the progress of 

 the work, and the exact position and width of 

 the entrance may often be left to a late stage of the 

 operations. 



Brys=on Cunningham. 



