Predicting the weather Victorians and the science of meteorology - Anderson, Katharine (University of Chicago Press, 2005)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-324) and index
A science of the weather -- Prediction, prophecy, and scientific culture -- Weather prophets and the Victorian almanac -- Weather in a public office -- Precision and a science of probabilities -- Maps, instruments, and weather wisdom -- Science, state, and empire
Victorian Britain, with its maritime economy and strong links between government and scientific enterprises, founded an office to collect meteorological statistics in 1854 in an effort to foster a modern science of the weather. But as the office turned to prediction rather than data collection, the fragile science became a public spectacle, with its forecasts open to daily scrutiny in the newspapers. And meteorology came to assume a pivotal role in debates about the responsibility of scientists and the authority of science. Studying meteorology as a means to examine the historical identity of p