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Publications

History of Meteorology 6 (2014)

ICHM’s peer-reviewed journal, History of Meteorology 6 (2014), is now available with a special section of papers from the 2014 International Congress of History of Science, Technology, and Medicine edited by Ruth A. Morgan.

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Publications

Frederic W. Harmer

One of our members, John A. Kington, will be publishing a book about Frederic W. Harmer in July 2014. For more information, please see: http://afes-press-books.de/html/SpringerBriefs_ESDP_Harmer.htm

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Publications

New History of Meteorology

An early release of History of Meteorology, Volume 6 is now available. Click here to read more.

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Climate History Network Publications

Climate History Forum in Environmental History

(cross post from the Climate History Network)

The April 2014 issue of Environmental History features an extended forum on climate history.  The introductory essay focuses on two questions raised throughout the articles: (1)How does the study of climate history enrich the field of environmental history more broadly? (2) How can environmental historians contribute to present-day understandings of and responses to global climate change?  The first contribution, by Adrian Howkins considers the history of Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys as a lens on contemporary climate science and the meaning of the Anthropocene.  Georgina Endfield analyses the workings of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation through past climate changes and extremes, with case studies from colonial Mexico.  Lawrence Culver discusses the historical perceptions and cultural construction of climate through 19th-century American debates over expansion into the arid West and the myth that “rain follows the plow.”  Sam White’s essay surveys the place of animals in climate history, emphasizing human use of animals as a key factor in past and present climate change vulnerability and resilience. Sherry Johnson considers the impact of smaller climate cycles and extreme events through a case study of Florida natives during the War of Jenkin’s Ear and the Stono Rebellion (1738-40).  James Fleming traces the history of a medical metaphor of climate and climate change both in scientific and popular discourse, noting its effects on policy proposal including as geoengineering.  Philip Garone details the practical and political significance of climate change for US public lands management and considers its consequences for our understandings of conservation, preservation, and wilderness.  Finally, Mark Carey makes a case for a critical climate history: an active involvement of historians in climate change discussions, and climate models and scenarios that are better informed by history.

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Publications

Toxic Airs: Body, Place, Planet in Historical Perspective

Toxic Airs: Body, Place, Planet in Historical Perspective
James Rodger Fleming and Ann Johnson (eds.)

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Publications

New Book on Fog – French

La brume et le brouillard dans la science, la littérature et les arts (Hermann, 2014)

Sous la direction de Karin Becker et Olivier Leplatre.

Click here for more info at the publisher’s website.

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Publications

New book on thermometers

Thermometer_VaeterHolland, Rainer und Gerhard Stöhr, Thermometer, Skalen und deren Väter. 210 Seiten, 75 Tafeln und Abbildungen, 2013,  Selbstverlag Riedlingen, ISBN: 978-3-00-042-032-0, Preis: 34,80 €

 

This is a wonderful book on the development of thermometers, which gives a lot of information, pictures, and references. It includes special thermometers and the transformation of their scale in Celsius or Fahrenheit. During the German-Austrian and Swiss Meteorological Conference (DACH 2013), which took place in Innsbruck (Austria) in September 2013, the authors received the Paulus Price for the best publication in history of meteorology.

 

Further publications describe the handling of mercury barometers and the history of hygrometers:

  • Holland, Rainer und Gerhard Stöhr, Quecksilber-Barometer Handbuch.114 Seiten, zahlreiche Abbildungen, 2012, Selbstverlag Riedlingen, ISBN: 978-3-00-038294-9, Preis: 25,80 €
  • Holland, Rainer und Gerhard Stöhr. Geschichte der Hygrometer. 110 Seiten, ca. 80 Abbildungen, 2011, Selbstverlag Riedlingen, ISBN: 978-3-00-033734-5, Preis: 18,90 €
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Publications

Erich von Drygalski (German)

A shortened reprint of Erich von Drygalski’s travel account of the first German South-polar Expedition (1901-1903) has been published in German, including an introduction concerning the background of the expedition.
 
Erich von Drygalski, Zum Kontinent des eisigen Südens – Die erste deutsche Südpolarexpedition 1901-1903. Herausgegeben von Cornelia Lüdecke, Edition Erdmann, Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden (2013), 366 S. 24,00 €, ISBN: 978-3-86539-856-7.
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Publications

Online seminar available

Jim Fleming, “At the Cutting Edge: Harry Wexler and the Emergence of Atmospheric Science,” Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRAHS) online seminar, Fort Collins, CO, Thursday, May 9, 2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MqY0y1rt8&feature=youtu.be

“This presentation tells the story of the emergence of the new interdisciplinary field of atmospheric science in the twentieth century as shaped by the influences of multiple technologies. It does so from the perspective of MIT-trained meteorologist Harry Wexler (1911-1962), an American student of the Bergen School of air mass analysis, head of research in the US Weather Bureau, and one of the most influential meteorologists of the twentieth century, whose career spanned the middle decades of the twentieth century…By telling the story through Wexler’s eyes, a more personal story can be told.”

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Publications

New Book: Lake Effect

Syracuse University Press just published Lake Effect: Tales of Warm Lakes, Arctic Winds, and Recurrent Snows, by Mark Monmonier. For more information, please visit http://syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/fall-2012/lake-effect.html.

Monmonier is author of Air Apparent, a history of the development and use of weather maps. His new book includes a historical examination of the recognition and understanding of a regionally important meteorological phenomenon.