Volume 1

The climate of London, deduced from meteorological observations, made in the Metropolis, and at various places around it / by Luke Howard.

  • Howard, Luke, 1772-1864.
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The climate of London, deduced from meteorological observations, made in the Metropolis, and at various places around it / by Luke Howard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    from 1007 to 1816 inclusive, made in the neighbourhood of London. They have appeared, for the most part, as Monthly Reports in different scientific Journals ; but of necessity in an in¬ sulated form, and without the connexion and the illustrations which it has now been my endeavour to bestow upon them. They are intended to form (in a Second Volume) the basis of such a me¬ thodical account as I have hinted at, of the Climate of Lon¬ don : or rather of that district in which the Metropolis and its sub¬ urban branches, have, during the last ten years, been rapidly extending. OF THE CALENDAR AND ARRANGEMENT. In introducing to the reader’s notice this Collection of observ¬ ations, I ought in the first place to account for the peculiarities of the arrangement. I had given them, from the first, to the press, not as usual, in Calendar months ; but in periods of a Lu¬ nar revolution. I11 so doing I had two objects in view. In the first place I obtained an earlier insertion in the periodical publications (which come out on the first of each month) than would have been possible, had I carried them up to the close of the preceding month : the difference, as the reader will perceive, is, on an average, two weeks in my favour, though at the expense to the publisher of inserting one Table more in the course of two years. Secondly, and what more induced me, my attention had been for some years called to the question, so much agitated among Meteorologists, whether, and in what way, the relative positions of the Moon in the different parts of her complex orbit, influence the state of our atmosphere. I thought the most con¬ venient way of investigating this subject, and which might bring out, even unexpectedly, facts capable of deciding the question, would be to digest my Results in Lunar periods at once. I lost by this means the facility of having them compared monthly with those of other Observers: and 1 obtained, in return, mate¬ rials sufficient for deciding in the affirmative the first part of the r 2