Defining the wind : the Beaufort scale, and how a nineteenth century admiral turned science into poetry / Scott Huler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Huler, Scott.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Beaufort scale.

Beaufort, Francis, Sir, 1774-1857.

Beaufort, Francis.

Physical Description:

290 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Crown Publishers, [2004]

Summary:

A writer's fascination with the exquisite intersection of science and language inspires this riveting account of the Beaufort Scale and how a 19th-century admiral turned the measurement into poetry.

Contents:

Introduction September 6, 1996: Hurricane Fran and before

Beaufort of the Admiralty

In search of the wind

The Beaufort scale, and who wrote it, in a general way

Reverse-engineering the wind

"Nature rightly questioned, never lies": the Beaufort scale, nineteenth-century science, and the last eighteenth-century man

Getting the word out: on the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, the dictionary, and how Sir Francis Beaufort slept with his sister

Taking the measure of the wind: the fabulous beaufortometer

A picture of the wind: poetry, the shipping forecast, and the search for the North Shields observer

Observation, a panegyric: on the Beaufort moment.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-277) and index.

ISBN:

1400048842

OCLC:

53814496