Essay on the Modifications of Clouds

An industrial chemist by profession, Luke Howard (1772–1864) proposed the method of cloud classification that is still in use today. His life-long interest in meteorology led him to produce this landmark work in the history of the subject. General scientific opinion at the time was that clouds were too changeable to be classified, but, inspired by Linnaeus' work in biological classification, Howard proposed a method which used Latin terminology – cirrus, cumulus, stratus and nimbus – to pro...