century. The Landgraf of Hesse described some 

 simultaneo^is weather observations, made without 

 instruments, in 1637. Francis Bacon's "Natural His- 

 tory of the Wind," considered the first special work 

 of this kind to attain general circulation, appeared 

 in 1622.2 jj seems likely that the rise of scientific 

 meteorology was an aspect of the general rationaliza- 

 tion of nature study which occurred at this time, and 

 that the initial impetus for such progress was gained 

 not from the invention of instruments but from the 

 need of navigators for wind data at a time when long 

 voyages out of sight of land were becoming common- 

 place. 



It should be noted in this connection that the two 

 most important instruments, the thermometer and 

 barometer, were in no way inspired by an interest in 

 meteorology. But the observation made early in the 

 history of the barometer that the atmospheric pressure 

 varied in some relationship to visible changes in the 

 weather soon brought that instrument into use as a 

 "weather glass." In particular, winds were attributed 

 to disturbances of barometric equilibrium, and wind- 

 barometric studies were made by Evangelista Torri- 

 celli, Edme Mariotte, and Edmund Halley, the lat- 

 ter publishing the first meteorological chart. In 

 1678-1679 Gottfried Leibniz endeavored to encourage 

 observations to test the capacity of the barometer for 

 foretelling the weather.^ 



Other questions of a quasi-meteorological nature 

 interested the scientists of this period, and brought 

 other instruments into use. Observations of rainfall 

 and evaporation were made in pursuit of the ancient 

 question of the sources of terrestrial water, the main- 

 tenance of the levels of seas, etc. Physicians brought 

 instruments to bear on the question of the relation- 

 ship between weather and the incidence of disease. 

 The interrelationship between these various meteor- 

 ological enterprises was not long in becoming ap- 

 parent. Soon after its founding in 1657 the Floren- 



2 Bacon's book emphasizes "direct" and "indirect" experi- 

 ments, and calls for the systematization of observation, but it 

 does not mention instruments. It is reprinted in Basil Monta- 

 gu's The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England, 

 London, 1825, vols. 10 and 14. 



3 Wolf, op. cit. (footnote 1), pp. 312, 316-320. The interest 

 of the Royal Society in the barometer seems to have been 

 initiated by Descartes' theory that the instrument's variation 

 was caused by the pressure of the moon. 



tine academy undertook, through the distribution of 

 thermometers, barometers, hygrometers, and rain 

 gauges, the establishment of an international net- 

 work of meteorological observation stations, a net- 

 work which did not survive the demise of the 

 Accademia itself ten years later. 



Not for over a century was the first thoroughgoing 

 attempt made at systematic observation. There 

 was a meteorological section in the Academy of 

 Sciences at Mannheim from 1763, and subsequently 

 a separate society for meteorology. In 1783, the 

 Academy published observations from 39 stations, 

 those from the central station comprising data from 

 the hygrometer, wind vane (but not anemometer), 

 rain gauge, evaporimeter, and apparatus for geo- 

 magnetism and atmospheric electricity, as well as 

 data from the thermometer and barometer. The 

 Mannheim system was also short-lived, being termi- 

 nated by the Napoleonic invasion, but systems of 

 comparable scope were attempted throughout Europe 

 and America during the next generation. 



In the United States the office of the Surgeon 

 General, U.S. Army, began the first systematic 

 observation in 1819, using only the thermometer 

 and wind vane, to which were added the barometer 

 and hygrometer in 1840-1841 and the wind force 

 anemometer, rain gauge, and wet bulb thermometer 

 in 1843. State weather observation systems mean- 

 while had been inaugurated in New York (1825), 

 Pennsylvania (1836), and Ohio (1842).* 



Nearly 200 years of observation had not, however, 

 noticeably improved the weather, and the naive 

 faith in the power of instruments to reveal its mys- 

 teries, which had possessed many an early meteor- 

 ologist, no longer charmed the scientist of the early 

 19th century. In the first published report of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science 

 in 1833, J. D. Forbes called for a reorganization of 

 procedures: 



In the science of Astronomy, for example, as in that of 

 Optics, the great general truths which emerge in the progress 

 of discovery, though depending for their establishment upon 

 a multitude of independent facts and observations, possess 

 sufficient unity to connect in the mind the bearing of the 



•• On early meteorology in the United States see the report 

 of Joseph Henry in Report of the Commissioner of Patents, Agricul- 

 ture, for the Tear 1855, 1856, p. 357ff. ; also, Army Meteorological 

 Register for Twelve Tears, 7843-7854, 1855, introduction. 



98 



BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



