Meteorology's struggle for professional recognition in the USA (1900-1950)

Annals of Science

Volumn 63, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 179-199

  Harper, Kristine C ^a  

^a NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF MINING AND TECHNOLOGY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GEOPHYSICS; MILITARY GEOLOGY; PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS; WEATHER FORECASTING;

DISDAIN; MATHEMATICAL RIGOR; METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION; METEOROLOGISTS;

METEOROLOGY;

EID: 33646763516     PISSN: 00033790     EISSN: 1464505X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00033790600554627     Document Type: Article

References (129)

1. On the growth of US research universities, see for instance Laurence R. Veysey, The Emergence of the American Research University (Chicago, IL, 1965);
2. Hugh Hawkins, Pioneer; A History of the Johns Hopkins University, 1874-1889 (Baltimore, MD, 1960);
3. Roger L. Geiger, To Advance Knowledge: The Growth of American Research Universities (New York, 1986).
4. See also Robert E. Kohler, Partners in Science: Foundations and Natural Scientists, 1900-1945 (Chicago, IL, 1992), chapters 1-2.
5. On academic geography, see David Livingstone, The Geographical Tradition; Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise (Cambridge, 1992).
6. See James Rodger Fleming, Meteorology in America, 1800-1870 (Baltimore, MD, 1990)
7. for a detailed account of the early days of meteorology in the United States, including a discussion of theoretical disputes of the period, the Smithsonian's Meteorological Project, cooperative observation networks, and the impact of weather telegraphy. Gisela Kutzbach, The Thermal Theory of Cyclones; A History of Meteorological Thought in the Nineteenth Century (Boston, MA, 1979) focuses on the development of early meteorological theory up until the 1920s.
8. The USA did not have a strong theoretical research component in any scientific discipline in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a situation John Servos attributes to a lack of mathematical training. See John W. Servos, 'Mathematics and the Physical Sciences in America, 1880-1930', Isis, 77 (1986), 611-29 (612, 618).
9. However, graduate programmes centred on experimental sciences were increasingly robust. See Robert E. Kohler, 'The Ph.D. Machine: Building on the Collegiate Base', Isis, 81 (1990), 638-62 (642).
10. See also Daniel J. Kevles, Jeffrey L. Sturchio, and P. Thomas Carroll, 'The Sciences in America, Circa 1880', Science, 209 (4 July 1980), 26-32.
11. Vilhelm Bjerknes, 'Weather Forecasting as a Problem in Mechanics and Physics', Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 21 (1904), 1-17.
12. Robert Marc Friedman, Appropriating the Weather Vilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of a Modern Meteorology (Ithaca, NY and London, 1989), 31-48. Friedman's book presents a thorough discussion of the founding of the Bergen School of Meteorology and its methodologies.
13. Kutzbach (note 2), 224-25, 234-35, 239-40.
14. US Weather Bureau, Report of the Chief, 1932-1933 (Washington, DC, 1932), 7;
15. C. F. Marvin, 'Committee on Research', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 3 (1922): 11;
16. Gustavus A. Weber, The Weather Bureau: Its History, Activities and Organization (New York and London, 1922), 28, 32, 35;
17. US Weather Bureau, Report of the Chief 1921-1922 (Washington, DC, 1923), 22, 29;
18. US Weather Bureau, Report of the Chief, 1924-1925 (Washington, DC, 1926), 8.
19. Weber (note 7), 19, 34, 35.
20. Friedman (note 5), 119-22.
21. For a discussion of the early years of instrument development, see John H. Conover, The Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory: The First 100 Years-1885-1995 (Boston, MA, 1990).
22. Sir Napier Shaw, The Outlook of Meteorological Science', Monthly Weather Review, 48 (1920), 34-37.
23. Edgar W Woolard, 'Recent Contributions to Mathematical Meteorology', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 3 (1922), 96-98.
24. 3 Quoted in William A. Koelsch, 'From Geo- to Physical Science: Meteorology and the American University, 1919-1945', in Historical Essays on Meteorology 1919-1995: The Diamond Anniversary History Volume of the American Meteorological Society, ed. James Rodger Fleming (Boston, MA, 1996), 522.
25. Koelsch's article addresses the ways in which meteorology as a scientific discipline was handled by institutions of higher education in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s until it became recognized as a university discipline in its own right during the 1940s.
26. Sir Napier Shaw, Manual of Meteorology, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1926), 9.
27. Robert DeC. Ward, 'How Meteorological Instruction May Be Furthered', Monthly Weather Review, 46 (1918), 554.
28. Ibid.
29. For contemporary assessments of the state of academic meteorology in the early twentieth century, see Frank Waldo, The Study of Meteorology', Education, 26 (1906), 149-53;
30. Cleveland Abbe, 'The Progress of Science as Illustrated by the Development of Meteorology', Annual Report (Washington, DC, 1907), 287-309;
31. 'Curiosities of Science and Invention: Meteorology in American Universities', Scientific American, CV (14 October 1911), 343;
32. and William G. Reed, 'Meteorological Observations at the University of California', Science, XXXVII (1913), 800-802.
33. Koelsch (note 13), 513-19.
34. Paul P. Abrahams, 'Academic Geography in America: An Overview', Reviews in American History, 3 (March 1975), 46-52 (48).
35. Ronald E. Doel, 'The Earth Sciences and Geophysics', in Science in the 20th Century, ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre (Amsterdam, 1997), 391-416 (400).
36. See also Gregory A. Good, 'The Rockefeller Foundation, the Leipzig Geophysical Institute, and National Socialism in the 1930s', Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 21 (1991), 299-316.
37. While a disciplinary history of meteorology is lacking, historians of science have explored the disciplinary histories of the physical sciences. For a discussion of academic programmes in astronomy and how they compared with those for chemistry and biology, see John Lankford, American Astronomy: Community, Careers, and Power, 1859-1940 (Chicago, IL, 1997), 371-82.
38. For a discussion on academic programmes in physics, see Daniel Kevles, The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America (Cambridge, MA and London, 1987), 61-63, 70-72, 77.
39. On biology, see Philip Pauly, Biologists and the Promise of American Life: From Meriweather Lewis to Alfred Kinsey (Princeton, NJ, 2000).
40. 'Notes of Interest to Teachers', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1 (1920), 89-91.
41. Donald R. Whitnah, A History of the united States Weather Bureau (Urbana, IL, 1965), 69.
42. See Abrahams (note 18), for more details on the development of research and instruction in geography.
43. University News', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 3 (1922), 157.
44. Woodrow C. Jacobs, 'A Survey of Instruction' (Master's thesis, University of Southern California, 1934), 32, 39, 50, 95.
45. Lankford (note 20), 362. There were 362 professional astronomers in 1940.
46. Kevles (note 20), 202.
47. Willis Ray Gregg, 'History of the Application of Meteorology to Aeronautics with Special Reference to the United States', Monthly Weather Review, 61 (1933), 165.
48. Charles F. Brooks, 'Reclassification', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 3 (1922), 164.
49. James Rodger Fleming, 'Meteorological Observing Systems Before 1870 in England, France, Germany, Russia and the USA: A Review and Comparison', World Meteorological Society Bulletin, 46 (1997): 249-58, on 254.
50. Shaw (note 14), 2.
51. Gustavus A. Weber, The Bureau of Chemistry and Soils: Its History, Activities and Organization (Baltimore, MD, 1928), appendices 1, 2, and 6;
52. Milton Conover, The Office of Experiment Stations: Its History, Activities and Organization (Baltimore, MD, 1924), appendices 1, 2, and 6.
53. 'Meteorology in American Universities', Scientific American, CV (14 October 1911), 343.
54. 'Proceedings of the First Meeting', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1 (1921), 13.
55. This decline in the Weather Bureau's posture in the face of foreign expansion was used in support of an American Meteorological Society resolution encouraging Congress to increase the Bureau's appropriations.
56. 'Some Weather Bureau Projects', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1 (1920), 11-12.
57. The request included $200,000 for aerological work, $50,000 for marine meteorology, and $15,000 for fire-weather forecasting.
58. US Weather Bureau, Report of the Chief of the Weather Bureau, 1919-1920 (Washington, DC, 1921).
59. Efficiency of the Weather Bureau Endangered', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1 (1920), 140.
60. Brooks (note 29), 163-64. $1800/year was less than most shop employees earned at the Bureau of Standards or clerks earned with the Department of Agriculture's Office of Experiment Stations.
61. Weber (note 7), 49, 70;
62. M. Conover (note 32), 128, 166;
63. Weber (note 32), 165, 188.
64. 'Increased Pay for Weather Bureau Employees', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 9 (1928), 120.
65. S. D. F., 'Retrenchment in Weather Bureau Activities', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 15 (1934), 29-30;
66. US Weather Bureau, 1932-1933 (note 7), 3. A first-order station took extensive observations hourly or with continuous recording devices.
67. Karl T. Compton, 'Report of the Science Advisory Board, July 31, 1933 to September 1, 1934' (Washington, DC, 20 September 1934).
68. See Robert E. Kohler, 'Science, Foundations, and American Universities in the 1920s', Osiris, 2nd series, 3 (1987), 135-64, for a discussion of philanthropic support of US academic science between the world wars.
69. Oliver L. Fassig, The Weather Bureau', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 14 (1933), 111-12.
70. This was also true in the UK. See Shaw (note 14), 9. While other governmental agencies also provided 'free' services related to agriculture, the public view that anyone could forecast the weather led them to diminish the value of Weather Bureau services even as they expected those same services.
71. Congressional Act of 1 October 1890 (26 Statutes at Large, 653).
72. US Weather Bureau, 1932-1933 (note 7), 1.
73. US Weather Bureau, Report of the Chief of the Weather Bureau, 1920-1921 (Washington, DC, 1922), 19;
74. US Weather Bureau, 1921-1922 (note 7), 14-15, 17;
75. US Weather Bureau, Report of the Chief of the Weather Bureau, 1923-1924 (Washington, DC, 1925), 8;
76. US Weather Bureau, Report of the Chief of the Weather Bureau, 1925-1926 (Washington, DC, 1927), 4.
77. See Stephen J. Pyne, Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire (Princeton, NJ, 1982), 314-17 for background on fire issues, a discussion of fire weather forecasting as provided by the Weather Bureau, and the coordination that took place with the US Forest Service.
78. Weber (note 7), 70.
79. US Weather Bureau, 1920-1921 (note 48), 11.
80. Harold Yost, 'Adjusting Rain Insurance Policies', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 5 (1924), 17-19.
81. US Weather Bureau, 1922-1923 (Washington, DC, 1924), 17;
82. 'Insurance Against Adverse Weather', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 2 (1921), 13, reprinted from the Birmingham (Alabama) News, 12 August 1921;
83. A. H. Palmer, 'Weather Insurance', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 3 (1922), 67-70.
84. Weber (note 7), 35.
85. For more on aviation during the First World War, see Bill Robie, For the Greatest Achievement: A History of the Aero Club of America and the National Aeronautic Association (Washington, DC, 1993), 79-92.
86. For background on aviation during the early part of the twentieth century, see two books by Richard P. Hallion: Legacy of Flight: The Guggenheim Contribution to American Aviation (Seattle, WA and London, 1977)
87. Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity Through the First World War (New York, 2003).
88. For a brief discussion of aeronautical meteorology, see Gordon D. Cartwright and Charles H. Sprinkle, 'A History of Aeronautical Meteorology: Personal Perspectives, 1903-1995', in Historical Essays on Meteorology 1919-1995; The Diamond Anniversary History Volume of the American Meteorological Society, ed. James Rodger Fleming (Boston, MA, 1996), 443-80.
89. US Weather Bureau, 1920-1921 (note 48), 10.
90. US Weather Bureau, 1932-1933 (note 7), 5.
91. Philip Maynard Flammer, 'Meteorology in the United States Army, 1917-1935' (Master's thesis, George Washington University, 1938), 14.
92. Ibid., 11-15.
93. Charles C. Bates and John F. Fuller, America's Weather Warriors, 1814-1985 (College Station, TX, 1986), 18.
94. Kevles (note 20), 118-19, 132-33, 138.
95. Flammer (note 57), 18.
96. For details on Millikan's wartime work, see Robert A. Millikan, 'Some Scientific Aspects of the Meteorological Work of the United States Army', in The New World of Science, edited by Robert M. Yerkes (New York, 1920), 49-62.
97. Frederick J. Nelson, 'The History of Aërology in the Navy', US Naval Institute Proceedings 60 (1934), 522-28 (523).
98. See also Bates and Fuller (note 59), 23-29; and J. Conover (note 10), 144-49.
99. Cartwright and Sprinkle (note 54), 446-47. For more details on the relationship between the US military services and meteorology, see Bates and Fuller (note 59).
100. Nelson (note 63), 525; Bates and Fuller (note 59), 37-38.
101. Horace R. Byers, 'Carl-Gustaf Arvid Rossby', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 38 (1958), 98-99.
102. F. W. Reichelderfer, 'Postgraduate Course in Aerology and Meteorology for Naval Officers', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 9 (1928), 149.
103. Hallion (note 54), 219.
104. Reichelderfer (note 67), 149.
105. Robert G. Stone, 'New Department of Meteorology at New York University', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 19 (1938), 456;
106. J. Edmund Woodman, 'The New York University Institute of Aeronautical Meteorology - Its Structure and Problems', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 17 (1936), 118-19.
107. J. M. Lewis, 'Cal Tech's Program in Meteorology: 1933-1948', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 75 (1994), 69-81.
108. On Haurwitz, see Julius London, 'Bernhard Haurwitz', Biographical Memoirs, 69 (Washington, DC, 1996), 86-113;
109. on German seismologist Beno Gutenberg, who used his studies of microseism to help forecast tropical cyclones during the Second World War, see Leon Knopoff, 'Beno Gutenberg', Biographical Memoirs, 76 (1998), 114-47;
110. and on Jacob Bjerknes, see Arnt Eliassen, 'Jacob Aall Bonnevie Bjerknes', Biographical Memoirs, 68 (1996), 2-21.
111. For the impact of European émigrés on US science, see Laura Fermi, Illustrious Immigrants: The Intellectual Migration from Europe, 1930/41, 2nd ed. (Chicago, IL, 1971);
112. Donald Fleming and Bernard Bailyn, editors, The Intellectual Migration: Europe and America, 1930-1960 (Cambridge, 1969);
113. and Jarrel C. Jackman and Carla M. Borden, editors, The Muses Flee Hitler Cultural Transfer and Adaptation, 1930-1945 (Washington, DC, 1983).
114. See, for example, Kohler (note 43).
115. Louis H. Bean, 'Weather and Crop Research under Bankhead-Jones Fund: Progress Report', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 17 (1936), 288-292.
116. For more information on the Bankhead-Jones Act of 1935, see A. Hunter Dupree, Science in the Federal Government: A History of Policies and Activities (Baltimore, MD and London, 1986), 364-65.
117. Bates and Fuller (note 59), 52.
118. Koelsch (note 13), 530-31.
119. See Frederik Nebeker, Calculating the Weather Meteorology in the 20th Century (San Diego, CA, 1995), 111-48,
120. for a discussion of the effect of the Second World War on meteorological practice and von Neumann's computer project as it related to numerical weather prediction. See also William Aspray, John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing (Cambridge, MA, 1990), chapter 6.
121. For a discussion of the effects of war on meteorological development, see Alex Roland, 'Science and War', Osiris, 2nd series, 1 (1985), 247-72.
122. For a detailed look at the development of numerical weather prediction in the United States, see Kristine C. Harper, 'Boundaries of Research: Civilian Leadership, Military Funding, and the International Network Surrounding the Development of Numerical Weather Prediction in the United States' (Ph.D. dissertation, Oregon State University, 2003).
123. Horace R. Byers, 'Recollections of the War Years', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 51 (1970), 217.
124. UMC Meeting Minutes, 6 December 1943, 25-27, 40, 46-48, 58 (University Meteorological Committee Collection, MC 511, Institute Archives and Special Collections, MIT Libraries, Cambridge, MA, Box 2, Blue Folder).
125. Carl-Gustav Rossby, 'A Message to Members from President Rossby', Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 25 (1944), 268-69.
126. Kristine C. Harper, 'Research from the Boundary Layer: Civilian Leadership, Military Funding and the Development of Numerical Weather Prediction (1946-1955)', Social Studies of Science, 33 (2003), 667-96 (670-71).
127. Whitnah (note 22), 195. Other books addressing the history of the Weather Bureau and its predecessors are Phyllis Smith, Weather Pioneers: The Signal Corps Station at Pikes Peak (Athens, OH, 1993);
128. and Patrick Hughes, A Century of Weather Service: A History of the Birth and Growth of the National Weather Service, 1870-1970 (New York and London, 1970).
129. Harper (note 80), 684-85.