Luke Howard, father of Meteorology
boud...@carliles.freeserve.co.uk
THE MAN WITH HIS HEAD IN THE CLOUDS
Every Monday morning in England would see millions of women partaking
in the same pastime. Standing outside their back doors, their hands
over their eyes looking up into the sky. Was it a bird, was it a
plane. No, something much more serious. Rain! They were scanning the
horizons as people had done for thousands of years before.
But, have you ever looked up into the sky just for the sake of it? I
know I have.
The minute I was phoned up and asked to do a talk, I knew who's turn it
was. It was a man who looked up into the sky for greater reasons than
the washing. It was an Ackworth man called Luke Howard who once
studied the skies then named the clouds. In his turn he's become known
as the Father of Meteorology, and in those circles has become famous
throughout the world.
As with any biography we have to start with Luke as a lad. He was born
into a simple Quaker family in 1772. He was the eldest son of the
second family of Robert Howard who had married Elizabeth Leatham of
Pontefract as his second wife in February 1772, making Luke a
'honeymoon baby'. Robert wrote a book called 'Corn and Quakers' which
ran to four edition when published in 1800.
It was a time of great scientific discovery. James Cook had just
finished his trip to discover subjects for daytime television. George
III sat on his throne, governing Britain's first Empire and it's
American Colonies. In Bow street, London a police force had just been
founded by Henry Fielding, the writer of Tom Jones. The industrial
revolution was picking up speed with names like Richard Arkwright and
James Watt. In 1769 Josiah Wedgewood opened his pottery and Joshua
Reynolds became the first president of the Royal Academy. A man called
William Smith was born. He was to become the founder of English
Geology. It seems it was good time to be born. It was a time of
invention and of discovery, England was spreading its will out across
the globe and competing well against its European counterparts. Of
course with hindsight we can see that England was about to come a
cropper and lose its first Empire as America shakes off the yoke and
goes all Independent.
We can see another independence fight looming a little closer to Luke's
life as well since this was the time that Quakers in America and
England were starting the first protests against slavery. It's been
long established that as well as being a group of great faith the
Quakers were a group of great acts, and the bigger the injustice the
bigger the reaction from the Quakers. I think it's important to view
Luke's background and faith because we can see the effect that this may
have had on his longer term development and life. This was still a
time when the norm was to be a member of the Church of England, no
matter what you believed. You were barred from holding certain public
offices and you couldn't go to University. Proof of this lies on our
own doorstep with the founding of Ackworth School by the Quakers when
Luke was seven, not that Luke ever attended the school.
But, to go back to Luke's origins, he was born in Red Cross Street,
London, on the 28th November 1772. His Great-Great Grandfather,
according to Luke, was Gravely Howard had been a man of great wealth,
and had followed James II on his disastrous journey into Ireland to
save his throne. This had meant the loss to the family of their great
estate in Berkshire. His son, Stanley became a follower of the Quaker
movement. This meant a great shift in the way the family acted in the
world as a whole, they distanced themselves from the military, the
clergy, from cilvil service and honours and set themselves on a path of
social service done, not for self-esteem, but for doing good for the
sake of it.
He attended Burford Grammar School a Quaker establishment near Oxford.
Here he was impressed by his Quaker tutor who taught him a wide range
of subjects, though he did find him to be a member of the old school
who liked to beat boys for bad behaviour and slow learning. Though he
learned plenty of Latin he reminisced in later life that most of it was
forgotten, and in spite of his scientific reputation he always found
maths a difficult and baffling subject. This school was nearly 80 miles
away from his home, but a good Quaker education was needed. We know
that Luke's father had links with the school at Ackworth, and had sat
on it's London Committee since the school's opening in 1779. Luke
stayed at the school all year through, apart from the midsummer
holidays. His sister remembered their fond reunion in later life. The
reason for this school being chosen may be due to the strong Quaker
community, originally set up 1709. Two years later Luke's brother,
William joined him at the school. The establishment closed in 1811,
and it's founder Thomas Huntley died 2 years later in 1813. Thomas'
son, Joseph, moved to Reading, where he started a biscuit factory and
shop. His son, Thomas carried on the business and went into
partnership with a George Palmer, and Huntley and Palmers may well be a
name familiar to those with a sweet tooth.
In spite of the long terms, and the old school teachers Luke seems to
have enjoyed himself at school. The skies entranced him even at this
young age, especially the Aurorae borealis. He remembered the 'haze' of
1783, which was caused by a pair of volcanic eruptions, one in Iceland
and one in Japan.
In the same year, on August 18th, he saw a great meteor, reckoned to be
56 miles above the earth and 1070 yards wide. He watched it from a
window as it progressed through the skies.
The end of his seven years at Burford marked the end of his formal
education. This is astounding in light of the fact he would later
become a fellow of the Royal Society, and remembered to this day for
his academic achievements. On leaving school he became an apprentice
to a druggist in Stockport. He was a pharmacist, and in his own words
"I made every kind of thing for which we had the occasion and the
means." In his spare time he studied French, chemistry and Botany.
At the age of 22 he returned to London. He continued with his chosen
line of business, but almost cut his life short when he fell from a
ladder while carrying a bottle full of arsenic. His ulnar artery was
left wide open, and full of poison. The doctors took days deciding
what to do. In the meantime the blood soaked dressings were changed
after their regular bleedings. Days after the accident they operated
on the artery, but it would be a few years before Luke was fully
recovered, indeed the injury caused him some pain for the rest of his
life.
So, we have a man with a wide range of interests, always mentally
active, and in a period of time when thinking and discoveries were a
fashion. The invalid had to take time out of his life to rest from the
physical, and he turned his attention to the world of nature. he
studied botany again, the properties of pollen. He even submitted a
paper in 1800 to the Linnaean Society.
In 1779 he went into partnership with his intimate friend, William
Allen". Luke ran the laboratory. The business later continued (after
7 years)without Luke and became famous as another partnership, that of
Allen and Hanbury. Luke was busy again, but between his home and his
work he found himself looking skyward more and more. He kept a diary
of his findings which he called his meteorological register. He and
Allen belonged to a Philosophical Society in London. In turn each of
them had to bring along an essay for discussion, and it's here that we
encounter Luke's first work, unimaginatively titled 'Essay on Clouds'.
1779 was also an important year because Luke married Mariabella Eliot.
She was the daughter of John Eliot, a gentleman of London.
Importantly, she came from a Quaker family. In his letter to Goethe
Luke tells of how they have five children, Three sons and two
daughters. He tells how the children have been educated at home and
locally, perhaps telling the reader of a sense of distance and
loneliness in his own childhood. He doesn't in any way blame his
parents though, and recommends their care and protection.
In his letter he also goes into some detail about his faith, and how
important the Society of Friends is to him. His scientific studies are
to be used for the benefit of mankind, and he sees himself as aiding in
the settlement of disputes, something to bear in mind as the story
unfolds. He looks forward to the time when Christianity will improve
the conditions of mankind generally, doing away with war and
superstition. In active service of his beliefs Luke was an avid
supporter of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Amongst other children, Rachel was born in 1804. They had 8 children
in all, though two died under the age of 2.
In 1807 Luke moved his family to Tottenham, and he moved his factory to
Stratford. Another century later his family moved the works to Ilford,
which is currently the site of Howard and Sons Ltd. The business was a
popular and thriving one, and as his eldest sons grew they were
introduced to the company. This meant that though Luke was the CE of
the company he found himself leaving the business end of things to
others, leaving him free to pursue his real interests of science and
literature.
He was a keen journal keeper and would keep a detailed account of his
life's 'goings-on'. Through a London committee he helped relieve
sufferings in Germany which resulted in gifts from the kings of Prussia
and Saxony in 1814, these being a diamond ring and Meissen porcelain,
along with the freedom of the City of Magdeburg, in spite of the fact
that he'd never actually been there.
He was committed to Quakerism, and this was no English affair. He
spent a great deal of time and trouble looking out for the welfare of
Quakers in Europe, and the meeting in 1816 determined to send a group
out in that Summer to examine conditions in Germany, one of their
number being Luke Howard. On that journey he also visited Friends in
Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
In May 1816 Elizabeth Fry, of the £5 note fame, and who was
responsible at one point for the running of the Meeting at Ackworth,
and Elizabeth Robson went to Europe to see the prison conditions there,
accompanied by Luke's partner, William Allen.
In Germany we come across the character of Johann Wolfgang von
Geothe, probably most famous to us for his Faust. Goethe often
visited the Meeting in Pyrmont, and had many Quaker connections. His
interests in meteorology had led him to read Luke's Essay on the
Modification of Clouds which had been published in 1803, though the
translation took until 1815 to reach Goethe. It could be said that
Luke's ideas greatly influenced Goethe, and later, through independent
studies Goethe confirmed Luke's ideas. In 1822 Goethe made a request
of Luke that he send him an autobiography. He wasn't just interested
in Luke's theories, he was interested in the man himself.
In 1821 he retired from his work and was nominated and elected a
member of the Royal Society in recognition of his work on meteorology.
It was at this point that he left his businesses behind and bought an
estate in the Yorkshire village of Ackworth, no doubt drawn here by the
school. The house he bought there was called the Villa, and he'd spend
the rest of his life flitting between properties in London and
Ackworth, though he sold up his house in Tottenham in 1828. He
continued his association with Ackworth School, and with the Meeting at
Ackworth. There were two threads of thought at this time, one which
followed a path of Evangelism and taking the message out to the world
via a strong social programme, including the work done by Elizabeth
Fry, of the £5 note fame, working in prisons. Another thread was a
self contemplative life, seeking the light within. Between 1825 and
1829 he translated the apocrypha from the Vulgate. This effectively
led to trouble with the British and Foreign Bible Society, to which
Luke had been a great supporter. This time became known as the
Beaconite controversy, and it would see Luke turning his back on the
Quakers. In the winter of 1827 four men, Darby, Cronin, Bellet and
Hutchinson came together and shared their concerns about the church.
They wished to have the experiences of the early Christians, and held
communion together. Though this group started in Dublin their
followers became well established in Plymouth, leading to their
nomenclature as the Plymouth Brethren. The Beaconite Controversy
started out with a book called' A Beacon to the Society of Friends'
published in 1835 by Isaac Crewdson who was a minister in the
Manchester Meeting. He was fully supported by Luke who was never
afraid to express his feelings, no matter what the result may be. They
expressed a belief in Justification by Faith, which put them at odds
with Quaker beliefs. Moreover, they started condemning beliefs as
unscriptural, unsound and even blasphemous. We could sum up Quaker
belief as God revealing Himself to the individual whereas the
Beaconites saw God as revealed purely in scripture. The two elements
couldn't continue along the same lines. As a leading light, Luke had
to leave the Society of Friends and draw alliances with the Plymouth
Brethren. From this change we see a Plymouth Brethren Burial Ground in
our village.
Luke played his part in village life away from the school as well. In
September 1853 he became a Lord of the Manor. This title came from his
sitting on a board of Trustees, alongside John Gully and Robert
Nelstrop. These dignitaries managed the property of the Manor which
was 'conveyed by Indentures of Conveyance on the 13th August and 10th
of September, the papers placed in the hands of J.Coleman, Solicitor,
Pontefract. He owned and lived in Ackworth Court alongside his life in
London. Here we can take a brief look at another member of the family
to have input into Ackworth life, his daughter Rachel. Born in 1804
she was a delicate flower. She was able, though not overly lively.
Influenced by her Quaker roots she was inwardly contemplative, though
she attempted to make her mark on life. This she resolved to do in the
form of the Howard School. Here she wanted to instil high moral and
religious training. Though she managed the building her health was in
serious decline and in 1837, at the age of 33 she was taken to
Tottenham. She had developed consumption and she died in the September
of that year.
Though they had eight children Luke and Mariabella outlived all but two
of them. Many of then spent their final days at Tottenham, often at
the house of Robert Howard, their eldest son. With so much death, it
makes one wonder if they'd have been better staying at home. Many were
buried at Winchmore Hill. In 1852 Mariabella died, at Tottenham when
she was 83. Luke spent the rest of his days surrounded by his two
remaning children and his grandchildren.
We know Luke of course because of his work on clouds, and now we need
to focus on this aspect of his wide ranging life. From the new estate
in Ackworth we're reminded that he named the clouds, cirrus, nimbus
etc., but what on earth did we do before Luke's naming?
Well, we still used names, though they weren't so intellectual. You'd
use a rough description such as castles and towers, mare's tails,
rocks, woolly fleece or oxeyes. Perhaps the only one to last to this
days is mackerel skies, describing those regularly patterned skies with
little even patches of high cloud.
Some of the old folklore drew from the colours and shapes of the clouds
and their skies. We see it old-wives-tales, but we still take heed-
Red sky at night, shepherds delight
Red sky at morning, sailor's warning
or
Mackerel skies and mare's tails, make lofty ships carry low sails.
In the early 19th Century we saw a new influence coming from a man
called Linnaeus, well, actually Carl von Linne, but that perhaps gives
us a clue. We are talking about a world looking for sense and order in
all things, and Von Linne looked at a naming system for nature that
would make sense. The system is famously used in the plant world where
different varieties are put in their groups because they share certain
characteristics. Luke certainly put a paper forward to the Linnaean
Society in 1800 on the subject of pollens. To some extent Luke drew on
this work as a basis for his own. He wasn't alone though. A man
called Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was looking at a similar system in France.
He published his classifications in 1802, before Howard. He
recognised that though the clouds were individual there were certain
generalities that could be observed. He suggested five main groupings-
Hazy clouds (en forme de voile)
Massed clouds (attroupés)
Dappled clouds (pommelés)
Broom-like clouds (en balayeurs)
Grouped clouds (groupés).
We can see of course that Lamarck used French names for his cloud
types, and this meant that it would only be adopted in France.
Moreover, the French were even reluctant to use them, perhaps due to
intellectual snobbery.
In late 1802, or perhaps early 1803 Luke presented his paper 'On the
Modification of Clouds' to the Askean Society. Luke proposed that
though there was great variety in formation they could be summed up in
a few general types. He classified these with latin names, and this
seems to have given the subject international as well as intellectual
appeal.
>From the mass of fluffy vapours up there Luke gave us three groups.
Cumulus, the Latin for heap. He described them as "Convex or conical
heaps, increasing upward from a horizontal base -- Wool bag clouds."
Stratus, the Latin for layer. "A widely extended horizontal sheet,
increasing from below."
And Cirrus, the Latin for the curl of the hair, "Parallel, flexuous
fibres extensible by increase in any or all directions."
He then gave a fourth category for "a cloud in the act of condensation
into rain, hail or snow," which he called Nimbus, the Latin for rain.
He worked out that so long as clouds kept to these 'primitive forms'
there was no chance of rain, and that by watching changes in the clouds
then the weather could be predicted. 18th century women were
overjoyed!
He also worked out that clouds could change their shape, and one thing
almost become another, so that when lots of cumulus clouds bunched
together to such an extent that the clouds were full they became
cumulo-stratus, or in the man's words-
"The cirro-stratus blended with the cumulus, and either appearing
intermixed with the heaps of the latter, or super-adding a widespread
structure to its base."
Two more similar 'mixes were Cirro-stratus- "Horizontal or slightly
inclined masses, attenuated towards a part or the whole of their
circumference, bent downward or undulated, separate, or in groups, or
consisting of small clouds having these characters."
and cirro-cumulus- "Small, well defined, roundish masses increasing
from below."
Though the details may sound just a bit deep and complex we can see
that what Luke manged to do was take a subject that had limited appeal
up till then and made it a scientific study, while also classifying
something that had been thought fairly abstract up until then. He also
put it into a language that would appeal to, and be understood by the
scientific minds of his day.
We can contrast this state of affairs with what was said by Luke of the
Royal Society's Meteorological Committee in 1814. 'If this learned and
highly respectable body feels the subject of the weather no longer
worthy of notice, would it not be better, at once to dismiss the
register from its transactions?' In the days of Luke's growing
interest the subject wasn't taken seriously. The records were ill
managed and ill-kept.
We can see now why there was this great passage of letters between
Luke and a great thinker such as Goethe. We find as well that Luke
discusses his ideas with J.M.W. Turner, and it can be seen from
Turner's paintings that after such discussions his paintings become
more correct. This if anything is praise indeed for a man renowned for
his painted skies. In 1821 he painted cloud studies of his own, as had
Luke. Constable likewise learned from Luke's published works, and from
such studies the paintings they made more sense and became more
realistic.
Luke is keen to discuss, and learn and adapt his ideas as people put
forward their own theories. He also keeps careful records of the
weather, and barometric pressures. This habit was also kept up by
Goethe, who moved over to Luke's method of recording. So impressed was
he by Luke that he wrote a poem in praise of him as well as saying- he
"was the first to hold fast conceptually the airy and always changing
form of clouds, to limit and fasten down the indefinite, the intangible
and unattainable and give them appropriate names."
Though he'll always be remembered for his naming of the clouds, which
gained him the title The Father (or Godfather) of Meteorology, this
wasn't the only thing he ever did. He presented a paper on the average
barometer, and gave his 'theories of rain' to the Askean society. As I
said earlier, he kept a Meteorological Register from 1806 which began
being published in the Athenaeum Magazine in 1807. London proved to be
an interesting atmosphere to study, probably why he wanted to also live
here at Ackworth. In the full grip of the Industrial Revolution, the
capitol was a grimy, smoky place and this of course attracted the
famous fogs which have become known to history as pea-soupers. In
January 1812 he commented "...the sky, where any light pervaded it,
showed the aspect of bronze. Such is, occasionally, the effect of the
accumulation of smoke between two opposite gentle currents, or by means
of a misty calm. I am informed that the fuliginous cloud was visible,
in this instance, for a distance of forty miles." Not only did he
discover that these thick fogs were part of city life, he also
discovered that they keep their heat during the night. Over a period
of nine years he kept careful measurements and worked out that the city
was nearly 4 degrees warmer in the night and ½ a degree cooler in the
day than in comparable countryside. Perhaps 200 years on we are only
just taking on board some of the findings. He gave lectures on
Meteorology which were later to be published in 1837, giving the world
its first textbook in Meteorology. Going beyond the skies he looked at
the influences of the moon on the weather and in 1847 published his
last book on the subject Barmetrographia. He developed ideas that
wouldn't come to proper fruition until the early 20th Century, and he
never lost his passion for nature, especially his clouds.
"The sky too belongs to the Landscape. The ocean of air in which we
live and move, in which the bolt of heaven is forged, and the
fructifying rain condensed, can never be to the zealous Naturalist a
subject of tame and unfeeling contemplation,"
He died in Tottenham on March 21st, 1864. The Villa at Ackworth stayed
in the family until 1897.
In 2002 a blue plaque was unveiled by the Meteorological Office at 7,
Bruce Grove, Tottenham, where Luke died. Michael Fish praised Luke for
his work in naming the clouds but perhaps we simplify his story too
much by reducing it to this baptismal role. He was responsible for
giving us the clouds as a serious subject. He enabled proper study of
a topic we take so much for granted these days. He's well worth the
memory because we have the reminder there every day of what part of his
life was all about!
Stephen Carlile, Nov 2004