Luke Howard

Luke Howard (November 28, 1772 – March 21, 1864) was a British manufacturing chemist and an amateur meteorologist with broad interests in science. [cite web | url = http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?
]   His lasting contribution to science is a nomenclature system for clouds, which he proposed in an 1802 presentation to the Askesian Society. 

Howard has been called "the father of meteorology" because of his comprehensive recordings of weather in the London area from 1801 to 1841 and his writings, which transformed the science of meteorology. [Thornes, John. E., "John Constable's Skies", The University of Birmingham Press, 1999, ISBN 1-902459-02-4: 189.] In his late twenties, he wrote the "Essay on the Modification of Clouds", which was published in 1803. [Thornes 1999: 189.] He named the three principal categories of clouds - cumulus, stratus, and cirrus, as well as a series of intermediate and compound modifications, such as cirrostratus and stratocumulus, in order to accommodate the transitions occurring between the forms. He identified the importance of clouds in meterorology:

Clouds are subject to certain distinct modifications, produced by the general causes which affect all the variations of the atmosphere; they are commonly as good visible indicators of the operation of these causes, as is the countenance of the state of a person's mind or body. [Thornes 1999: 36.]

Howard was not the first to attempt a classification of clouds—Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) had earlier proposed a list of descriptive terms in French—but the success of Howard's system was due to his use of universal Latin, as well as to his emphasis on the mutability of clouds. By applying Linnean principles of natural history classification to phenomena as short-lived as clouds, Howard arrived at an elegant solution to the problem of naming transitional forms in nature. 

In addition to his seminal work on clouds, Howard contributed numerous papers on other meteorological topics, although with less success. He was also a pioneer in urban climate studies, publishing "The Climate of London" in 1818-20, which contained continuous daily observations of wind direction, atmospheric pressure, maximum temperature, and rainfall; [Thornes 1999: 203.] it also demolished James Hutton's theory of rain, though without suggesting a definitive alternative. [Thornes 1999: 190.]

Howard's cloud classification had a major influence on the arts as well as on science. Howard corresponded with Goethe, who wrote a series of poems in gratitude to him, including the lines:

:But Howard gives us with his clear mind:The gain of lessons new to all mankind;:That which no hand can reach, no hand can clasp:He first has gained, first held with mental grasp. [Thornes 1999: 190.]

Howard also inspired Shelley's poem "The Cloud" and informed John Constable's paintings and studies of skies [Thornes 1999: 52.] and the writings and art of John Ruskin, who used Howard's cloud classification in his criticisms of landscape paintings in "Modern Painters". [Thornes 1999: 187.]

Howard was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821. He was a Quaker, later converting to the Plymouth Brethren, and a pharmacist by profession. He was born and lived in London, although he spent the years 1824 to 1852 in Ackworth, Yorkshire.  His daughter Rachel founded a school there, which also contains a Plymouth Brethren burial ground. There is an English Heritage blue plaque to Howard at 7 Bruce Grove, Tottenham, the house in which he died, aged 91. The church in Tottenham that he had much involvement with (alongside his son, John Eliot Howard), Brooks Street Meeting House (now Brook Street Chapel) can still close to the house, on Tottenham High Road.

Howard appears in a novel by French writer Stéphane Audeguy titled, "La théorie des nuages," winner of the 2005 Prix de l'Académie.  Published in the US by Harcourt in 2007 as "The Theory of Clouds." [Adudeguy, S, "The Theory of Clouds, Harcourt Books 2007, http://www.harcourtbooks.com/bookcatalogs/bookpages/9780151014286.asp]   

References

Sources

*Hamblyn, Richard, "The Invention of Clouds", London, Picador, 2001.
*Thornes, John.E., "John Constable's Skies", The University of Birmingham Press, 1999, ISBN 1-902459-02-4.

External links

* [http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/history/howard.htm Luke Howard Biography ]
* [http://www.cloudman.com/luke/luke_howard.htm  More on Luke Howard]