Defining the Wind by Scott Huler

Author:Scott Huler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307420558
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2007-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

“It is the opinion of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,” the memo begins, “that it would be to the honour and advantage of the Navy, and conduce to the general interest of Science, if new facilities and encouragement were given to the collection of information upon scientific subjects by the officers, and more particularly by the medical officers, of Her Majesty’s Navy, when upon foreign service; and their Lordships are desirous that for this purpose a Manual be compiled, giving general instructions for observation and for record in various branches of science.”

So far, so good, but then Beaufort the eighteenth-century man truly emerges: “Their Lordships do not consider it necessary that this Manual should be one of very deep and abstruse research. Its directions should not require the use of nice apparatus and instruments: they should be generally plain, so that men of merely good intelligence and fair acquirement may be able to act upon them; yet, in pointing out objects, and methods of observation and record, they might still serve as a guide to officers of high attainment.”

For twenty-first-century readers, accustomed to thinking of science as something undertaken by people in white coats in laboratories, a statement like this is almost breathtaking. This is a manual of science, to be sure, but that new word “scientist” doesn’t limit it to a special class of people. It’s a manual designed to enable a reasonable man of average curiosity and smarts—“of good intelligence and fair acquirement”—to use the materials he finds at hand and bring back such information as he can for queen and country. It’s delightful, and of course it goes on. Beyond exact science, their lordships would appreciate hearing “Reports upon National Character and Customs, Religious Ceremonies, Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, Language, Navigation, Medicine, Tokens of value, and other subjects,” though on those diverse topics they have no specific suggestions, choosing merely to encourage rather than instruct their observers.

The memo lists the book’s topics, and the authors of each section demonstrate the breadth and strength of Beaufort’s scientific connections: The general man of science Sir John F. W. Herschel wrote about Astronomy and edited the book; presidents of the Royal Society wrote the sections on Magnetism and on Geography. The man responsible for the geological survey of England wrote on Mineralogy. There were chapters on Meteorology and Botany, on Statistics, Tides, and Zoology, and of course one on Hydrography.

Charles Darwin wrote the section on Geology.

THE MANUAL WAS A WHO’S-WHO of science in the mid-nineteenth century—but again, what’s most remarkable about the book is neither its contributors nor its organization: it’s the way it instructs its readers. In the chapter on hydrography, for example, Rear-Admiral F. W. Beechey gives careful instructions on how to describe features of an approaching coast: describe anything white, which will stand out against the dark background of the coast; do not point out white objects with only sky as background, however—they won’t be sufficiently visible to navigators. Above all, “Always bear in mind that no description can equal a tolerably faithful sketch, accompanied by bearings.

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