Luke Howard

Luke Howard

Luke Howard (born November 28, 1772 in London , † March 21, 1864 in Tottenham ) was a pharmacologist and pharmacist in London, was also intensively involved with meteorology and had a broad interest in natural sciences. He is considered to be the founder of modern cloud science .

Life

Howard was born to Robert and Elizabeth Howard, the first child. His father was a successful businessman and, like Luke Howard himself later, was a dissenter of the Quaker religious community . This enabled him to send his son to a grammar school in Burford near Oxford for seven years . He did not receive a scientific education according to today's standards there - as well as later - but from an early age he showed a special interest in nature, especially in clouds .

The unusual weather phenomena of 1783, which can be traced back to the eruptions of the volcanoes Laki on June 8th and Asama , were particularly formative for the eleven-year-old Howard . The entry of volcanic particles into high layers of the atmosphere resulted in impressive color effects throughout the northern hemisphere. The enormous dust cloud covered all of Europe and parts of North Africa the following summer. There was also an impressive meteor on August 18 of the same year. Howard became and remained a devoted weather observer until the end of his life, also with the drive to be able to explain these phenomena. However, he was not a meteorologist by profession, but a businessman.

After his school education, he began an apprenticeship as a pharmacist with Ollive Sims in Stockport in 1787 , but also studied chemistry , botany and French . In 1795 he received the necessary start-up capital for his own business from his father. The following year he married Mariabella Eliot, whose marriage resulted in several sons. On March 23, 1796 he became a member of the Askesian Society , a small discussion group of like-minded people. Howard subsequently entered into a business relationship with its founder William Allen and his company Plow Court pharmacy , where he was responsible for the production of chemicals.

With "Howards and Sons Ltd." he finally built up a company for the manufacture of pharmaceutical chemicals around 1807. One focus of his work was the supply of quinine . However, he soon passed the laboratories on to his son John Eliot in order to be able to devote more time to meteorology and botany.

His work in the field of botany led to his admission to the Linnean Society as early as 1802 , but from today's perspective they play a subordinate role. Although meteorology was just one kind of hobby among others for him in today's terms, it was the field that fascinated him most. He himself said: "Meteorology was my real penchant."

Luke Howard was also committed to social projects. So he stood up for the fight against slavery and organized support for those who suffered under Napoleonic rule on the European continent. For the latter purpose he became executive secretary of a London aid committee that dealt with the collection of money. In return for the payment of a sum of 2,500 pounds sterling for the German city of Magdeburg and its surroundings was him and Robert Humphrey Marten on October 18, 1815 on the occasion of the commemoration of the Battle of the Nations , the Magdeburg honorary citizenship bestowed.

In 1821 he was accepted into the Royal Society for his services to meteorology .

Work and effect

Howard achieved European fame as the "godfather of the clouds" (Richard Hamblyn, English Godfather of the Clouds ). In his lecture On the Modification of Clouds , which he gave in December 1802 in the Plow Court Laboratory before the Askesian Society in London and which was published in Philosophical Magazine XVI in 1803 , he stated that it is very easy to categorize clouds could. In doing so, he laid the foundation for the classification of clouds that is still valid today, because until his time these were considered too diverse, complex and short-lived to be categorized. Science paid little attention to them.

In addition to his work on the study of clouds, Howard also published important works on other meteorological topics and was among other things a pioneer in urban climatology , with the first textbook in the field, the three-volume The Climate of London . This was based on weather observations that Howard began in 1806. He was one of the first to supplement his visual observations by measuring temperature and air pressure. He continued these measurements until 1830, over a period of almost 30 years.

With Seven Lectures on Meteorology he is also the author of the first textbook on meteorology.

The Luke Howard Award was named after him.

Howard's classification of clouds

Cloud class	Illustration	Definition of Howard
Cirrus (spring cloud)		"Parallel, flexuous fibers extensible by increase in any or all directions."
Stratus (layer cloud)		"A widely extended horizontal sheet, increasing from below."
Cumulus (heap cloud)		"Convex or conical heaps, increasing upward from a horizontal base."
Nimbus (rain clouds)		"Systems of clouds from which rain falls."

The basic categories suggested by Howard, which he himself assumed each cloud belonged to, are shown in the table on the right. As a fourth category, for clouds that produced precipitation at the moment of observation, he introduced the term nimbus, whereby today a distinction is made between nimbostratus and cumulonimbus . Howard was not satisfied with these categories, however. He saw their actual use for a weather forecast rather in the development of clouds from one type to another, which is why he also defined transitional forms such as cumulo-stratus for them.

Like Carl von Linné a few decades earlier in the taxonomy of living things, Howard used Latin names for his classification system, as these were understood internationally and - more importantly - could be used without translation. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck's publication on the same subject, which appeared a little earlier in the same year, failed to gain acceptance, in complete contrast to Howard's system. This spread quickly and found numerous supporters. Even Goethe heard of Howard in 1815 and from then on used his classification system, yes he was so enthusiastic that in 1821 he dedicated a hymn to him about "his clouds" with the title Howard's Memory of Honor and drew it, like Howard himself. Both entered into correspondence in 1822. Howard also had an influence on the romantic painters, in particular William Turner , John Constable and Caspar David Friedrich (through Goethe, who fell out with Friedrich here). The most important consequence of his studies, however, concerned the empirical science of meteorology as a whole, because now one could collect data on a large scale and learn to understand the clouds.

literature

From Howard

The most important publications of Howard in chronological order are:

• Average Barometer (1800)
• Theories of Rain (1802)
• On the Modification of Clouds (lecture given in 1802, published in Philosophical Magazine 1803), 3rd edition 1832 with illustrations based on Howard's sketches ( digitized version )
• Beginning of the Meteorological Register (1806, publications in Athenaeum Magazine from 1807)
• The Climate of London (initially two volumes 1818-19, second edition with three volumes 1833)
• Seven Lectures In Meteorology (first held in 1817, published in 1837)
• Barometrographia (1847)

About Howard

• Hamblyn, Richard: The Invention of Clouds - How an Unknown Meteorologist Researched the Language of the Sky. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-458-17084-7

Note: Almost all information available on the Internet relates to this book, which was originally published in English, is the only one of its kind and therefore also creates the risk of one-sided presentations.

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Howards memory of honor
• Claus Bernet :  Luke Howard. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 28, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-413-7 , Sp. 827-832.

Web links

• Literature by and about Luke Howard in the catalog of the German National Library
• Franz Ossing: Goethe and the clouds - Howards influence on Goethe

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Maren Ballerstedt, Peter Petsch and Matthias Puhle (eds.): "For the good of the city ..." Magdeburg honorary citizen , Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2012, ISBN 978-3-89812-963-3 , p. 172f. u. 229.