Notes

40 p. : col. ill. Cirrus, cumulus, stratus--where did these cloud names come from? Born in London, England, in 1772, Luke Howard was a boy with his head in the clouds. When he was ten he began keeping a weather journal to describe what he saw in the sky--he especially loved to watch the clouds. His father thought this daydreaming was a waste of time and got him a job with a chemist, making and selling medicines. Luke did become a chemist, but he didn't give up his hobby. Eventually, he joined a club whose members wanted to learn about science. They did experiments and wrote reports. Luke wanted to classify clouds, though many others had failed at this. At last, using the Linnaeus classification system as inspiration, Luke successfully created a system for naming the clouds. This system, modified in 1896, is still in use today.