Das Wetter der Nation
Meteorologie, Klimatologie und der schweizerische Bundesstaat, 1860–1914
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Date
2017
Publication Type
Doctoral Thesis
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yes
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Abstract
In the nineteenth century, state institutions for weather and climate observation and research emerged in many countries. Data collection was stabilized and standardized and often explicitly used to further practical interests. Resulting from this, the meteorological and climatological field changed thoroughly. The dissertation examines those changes, using the example of the Swiss Meteorological Institute (today MeteoSwiss), which was set up by the Swiss Natural Science Society (today SCNAT) with the help of state subsidies in the 1860s and was given an official status as state institute in 1881. The emerging relationship between science, state, and nation is being analyzed through discussions of the following questions: Why did scientific observation of and research on the weather within state boundaries become a responsibility of the Swiss federal state? What impact did the foundation of the Swiss Meteorological Institute and its incorporation into the administration have on the meteorological and climatological field and the knowledge production on weather and climate?
In order to answer these questions, the analysis uses a wide variety of published and unpublished sources, including archived protocols, research articles, and press texts – always in discussion with the existing literature on the history of science. As the first study on the developments in Switzerland, the dissertation combines the histories of climatology, weather forecasting, and theoretical meteorology, stories that are often told separately by historians of science. This cohesive approach takes into account the fact that, in the case examined, the more and more disciplinary separated strands of weather and climate investigation came together within one and the same institution.
Divided into three thematic parts, the study investigates the relationships between the making of weather and climate knowledge and political or societal developments from the launch of the Swiss observation network in 1860 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Section I outlines the structural changes and focuses on growing state responsibilities in weather observation, on the role of volunteers, and on international networks linking national observing systems. Therefore, the study goes beyond a perspective limited by nations, by putting light on international cooperation, which itself strengthened national structures. Using several examples of data production (climatological surveys, upper air measurements and reconstructions of past climate conditions), section II demonstrates how the Swiss Meteorological Institute attributed a scientific potential to its data and followed current debates within the field of meteorology and climatology, but could develop research activities only to a limited extent until 1914. Section III finally shows that the Swiss Meteorological Institute responded to or constructed practical needs when producing climate data, weather forecasts, and hail statistics. However, it also repeatedly dissociated itself from the expectation of practical applications and emphasized its scientific character.
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Examiner : Gugerli, David
Examiner : Kupper, Patrick
Examiner : Höhler, Sabine
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ETH Zurich
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03486 - Gugerli, David / Gugerli, David
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146297 - Raumerschliessung und Forschungsförderung: Zur Interaktion zwischen Naturwissenschaft und Bundesstaat im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (SNF)