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9780801863592 Add to Cart Academic Inspection Copy

Meteorology in America, 1800-1870 (POD)

  • ISBN-13: 9780801863592
  • Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
    Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
  • By James Rodger Fleming
  • Price: AUD $77.99
  • Stock: 0 in stock
  • Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
  • Local release date: 14/05/2000
  • Format: Paperback 292 pages Weight: 0g
  • Categories: History of science [PDX]
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Between 1800 and 1870 meteorology emerged as both a legitimate science and a government service in America. Challenging the widely held assumption that meteorologists were mere ''data-gatherers'' and that U.S. scientists were inferior to their European counterparts, James Rodger Fleming shows how the 1840s debate over the nature and causes of storms led to a ''meteorological crusade'' that would transform both theory and practice. Centrally located administrators organized hundreds of widely dispersed volunteer and military observers into systematic projects that covered the entire nation. Theorists then used these systems to ''observe'' weather patterns over large areas, making possible for the first time the compilation of accurate weather charts and maps. When in 1870 Congress created a federal storm-warning service under the U.S. Army Signal Office, the era of amateur scientists, volunteer observers, and adhoc organizations came to an end. But the gains had been significant, including advances in natural history and medical geography, and in understanding the general circulation of the earth's atmosphere.

""A welcome addition that fills one of the major gaps in the existing literature on the history of meteorology.""

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