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Cargando... The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies (2001)por Richard Hamblyn
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. The author takes what is essentially a biography of the man who came up with the cloud classification system and expands it so that it encompasses an exploration of the romantic age, with nods to scientists like Darwin and Beaufort and also to artists like Constable and Wordsworth and to those like Goethe who managed to be both scientists and artists.Enjoyed. ( ) The invention of clouds, how an amateur meteorologist forged the language of the skies by Richard Hamblyn Talks a bit about the 4 different cloud formations but more about the amateur meteorologist and his life. I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device). If you love meterology, if you love natural history, this book is a must read. This book makes you feel that you are at that time period when Luke Howard makes his presentation. The story before and after his presentation makes this book even more fasicating. The topics that occured during that time period could make one read the book and then spend a lifetime reading all the subjects that were covered in the book. Mr. Hamblyn keeps you hooked. The way he writes and ends chapters make it sound like a thriller than just a book about the weather. Even his credits are.... Nothing I write is doing to justice to this book. Just read it. Davy, Newton, Marconi, Babbage, Ben Franklin, John Bartram, Fitzroy, Admiral Beaufort with his storm scale, Flavio Gioja with the gimballed compass, John Harrison and his efforts to build a practical chronometer to give us Longitude, Maury and his paths across the seas … what giants walked the earth then. And now we add the name of yet another dissenter (Quaker), Luke Howard whose brilliance gave us the nomenclature of clouds and Meteorology. Giants of the Royal Society, a great story, well written and researched and charmingly presented with illustrations that make clear why this research and conclusion on the weather is so important .. and not just to English either!
The book doesn't stop with clouds, as indeed it shouldn't. We get a brief history of the winds, too, introducing Beaufort and a particularly curious amateur, a ship captain named Scoresby, who recorded scientific data on his voyages to Greenland for the benefit of Edinburgh professors (who were delighted to have a live captain in their classroom). Clouds seem to bring out the best in writing, for Scoresby's prose, too, has a power too often missing in scientific description. And, of course, the public responded to this, buying books and attending lectures in a public science that seems almost entirely absent today. PremiosDistinciones
An extraordinary yet little-known scientific advance occurred in the opening years of the nineteenth century when a young amateur meteorologist, Luke Howard, gave the clouds the names by which they are known to this day. By creating a language to define structures that had, up to then, been considered random and unknowable, Howard revolutionized the science of meteorology and earned the admiration of his leading contemporaries in art, literature and science. Richard Hamblyn charts Howard's life from obscurity to international fame, and back to obscurity once more. He recreates the period's intoxicating atmosphere of scientific discovery, and shows how this provided inspiration for figures such as Goethe, Shelley and Constable. Offering rich insights into the nature of celebrity, the close relationship between the sciences and the arts, and the excitement generated by new ideas, The Invention of Clouds is an enthralling work of social and scientific history. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)551.576Natural sciences and mathematics Earth sciences & geology Geology, Hydrology Meteorology Meteorology; Climate Moisture: rainfall, flow of streams, floodsClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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