Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/660

644 venture to predict, from the ranks of those who study and clearly understand the physical processes of cloud formation.

Cloudland, for a realm so near us and so closely associated with our welfare, has been sadly slighted by man's genius. The ancients were surprisingly stupid in their views and discussions of air, wind, and clouds. The wisdom of Aristotle, filtered through the mind of his favorite pupil Theophrastus of Eresus, does not show to advantage in these subjects. Nor have the moderns achieved much that is worthy of detailed mention until a comparatively recent period.

Our cloud names date from the beginning of the century. At a meeting of the Askesian Society in 1802, a young chemist of Tottenham read an essay in which he proposed the terms stratus or sheet, cumulus or heap, and cirrus or feather for cloud names. One attempt at cloud classification had been made previously, but Howard's scheme was so superior that it at once received recognition. The essay was reprinted, translated, and officially adopted in all the great countries of the world. While Howard's name is known to all meteorologists, little has been handed down concerning the man himself. He is quaintly described on the title-page of his three-volumed Climate of London, as a Citizen of London, Honorary Citizen of Magdeburg, and Honorary Associate of the Art Societies of Hamburg and Leipsic. No less a person than Goethe was among those who were charmed by Luke Howard's work. A friendship sprang up, a long correspondence was carried on, and the poet sings of Howard as one worthy of all honor.

Within the past few years the leading countries of the world through their representatives on the International Meteorological Committee have decided to depose the Howardian nomenclature. The proposal was made four years ago at the Munich Conference, and at Upsala last year a new classification was formally approved. Some of the more prominent sponsors for the new system are Hildebrandsson, Köppen, Neumayer, and Rotch. Modern meteorology demands more than a record of the appearance of the cloud. It seeks the meaning of each formation. The cloud is primarily valuable not on account of its beauty but because it makes manifest atmospheric motions and conditions not otherwise noticeable. A striking illustration of the use which modern meteorology makes of the clouds is found in the storm of August 26 to 29, 1893. This is the storm more familiarly known as the Sea Islands storm, in which eleven hundred lives were lost. At a critical moment the telegraph lines were blown down and all reports were missing south of Savannah. It is said that the storm center was accurately located by the forecasting officials by means of the clouds at distant stations.