AMATEUR METEOROLOGISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 14 (Supplement)

AMATEUR METEOROLOGISTS.

Meteorology has been a favourite field for the amateur, says "Nature." in 1840 James Glaisher, following a long line of amateur observers, was able to correct a false conclusion published by the Registrar-General as to the relative temperature of London and York. As a result he was requested to collect suitable observations for inclusion in the "Quarterly Returns of Marriages, Births and Deaths." He thereupon formed a band of 50 to GO voluntary observers who became the nucleus of the Royal Meteorological Society and the pioneers of the Meteorological Office. The exploration of the air has' been the special triumph of the amateur. The same Glaisher became famous as a balloonist, and some stirring pictures are published in this pamphlet of his experiences, ascending and insensible, at the height of seven miles. The Royal Society itself, indeed, and practically all the pioneers of the seventeenth century, were amateurs, at a time when the universities were close . in the grip ,of religious controversy and Aristotelian dialectics. Jt was men out of touch with this who first came together in Oxford, and afterwards consolidated their efforts in the Royal Society in London. They were mostly men of means, and it would be well for us if as large a proportion of that class were amateurs of science to-day.