It is no coincidence that the empirical body of this volume concluded with a consideration of the science of meteorology; a pursuit that relied so heavily on the use of calibrated instruments, uniform techniques of observation, and standardized information. Although attitudes were beginning to orientate towards a laboratory-based approach in the later years of the nineteenth century, the science of meteorology continued to depend on a dispersed network of observatories that could supply central locations like Kew with a mass of data on local weather. By extension, it relied on a host of local collectors to operate these sites and to follow the procedures set down by their metropolitan superiors. When put together with information from a host of other sites, the data local observers collected could be turned into synoptic weather charts that were issued to relevant bodies on a regular basis. An early example of such a chart was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of London in 1851.

Unlike the geological maps considered in Chapter 3, which were based on information collected over many months and years, synoptic weather maps were compiled from information collected in almost real time. They represented changes taking place in the atmosphere at a national scale and were perhaps the ultimate Victorian triumph over geography. As was noted in the previous chapter, however, we should resist the assumption that meteorology represented an inevitable march towards a standardized national weather. We should assume instead that it was defined by a set of practices that extended unevenly across a physical landscape; that actively constructed geographies of centre and periphery; and that relied on a set of social and intellectual relations that could at times produce unexpected outcomes. These assumptions run through the book more generally.

Science in Regional Context

By considering the operations of nineteenth-century science in regional context, the intention has been to reconsider a fairly simplistic model of centre-periphery relations. All of this is not to deny the power of particular ideas, individuals and institutions, which certainly shaped the fortunes of Cornish science from without, occasionally against the wishes of local practitioners.