The early meteorological network of the Societas Meteorologica Palatina (1781–1792): foundation, organization, and reception

Abstract

The Societas Meteorologica Palatina arranged the first international meteorological network in a modern sense, being in operation between 1781 and 1792 during the last period of enlightenment. A total of 39 stations contributed observations. The original aim was to investigate influences of the moon and planets on the atmosphere. Instruments were provided free of charge; a physically very advanced instruction guaranteed reliable observational results, and the data collected at 3 different hours per day were printed at high cost in the Ephemerides Societatis Meteorologicae Palatinae (denoted Ephemerides hereafter) of Mannheim. This wealth of data has become a famous treasure trove for scientists and has been used later very often for climatic studies, for climatic comparisons of different locations in textbooks, for overcoming wrong but generally accepted or even outdated (e.g. scholastic) views; for finding new explanations for meteorological phenomena, and for studying extremes of meteorological parameters. Even in modern times, the data were evaluated and used to reconstruct historical weather maps. Although, meanwhile, some problems of the historical instruments have been recognized, most of the conclusions are still basically correct. The data were also used for verifying geomagnetic models or proxy data from tree-ring analysis. This network stimulated many scholars for special meteorological studies, and it was attractive for new stations to join the network. The early death of the meteorological secretary Johann Jakob Hemmer and the Napoleonic Wars brought about the end of the project. Nevertheless, many of the stations continued the observations using the available instruments.