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....
Between 1800 and 1870 meteorology emerged as both a legitimate science and a government service in America. Challenging the widely held assumption ...