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.

    47/458 (page 27)
    to affect considerably the action of De Luc's electrical column. As some instances of this kind occur in the observations of my friend Thomas [now Dr. j Forster, inserted in this work, I shall follow his description of the instrument. It is composed of a great num¬ ber of small circular and very thin plates, of silver, of paper, and of zinc, placed alternately on each other, and pres¬ sed closely together, so as to form a Column. One end of the column thus arranged is observed to become permanently electri¬ fied plus, the other minus: a bell is connected with each, and a small ball of metal is suspended between the bells. The whole is enclosed in glass and insulated. From the tendency of the Elec¬ tricity to become equalized, while it is continually renewed, the metallic clapper keeps passing to and fro between the bells. And the varieties in the kind of Pulsation produced by this means, with its occasional intervals, or even cessations for a considerable time, constitute the effects to be studied in connexion with the other phenomena of the season. OF THE NOTES AND MISCELLANEOUS MATTER. The Notes appended to my earlier Tables of observations were published in an incomplete state: the confined interest of the sub¬ ject at that period, and some uncertainty as to the probable re¬ ception of the Terms used to designate the clouds, made me sparing of them for two or three years. On concluding to insert the suppressed Notes in this work, I found that, from the mode of reference by letters, instead of dates, it would be no easy task to incorporate them with the rest. They are therefore left in the less convenient form of additions. The Nomenclature of clouds, to which I have just alluded, having now grown into pretty general use among the Meteorolo¬ gists of our own country, I shall not need to introduce it to the reader as a novelty. [It is attached, in this Second Edition, to the Introductory matter of the work.] The reader will find the system in its original state in Tilloch’s Philosophical Magazine,