Henry Helm Clayton

Henry Helm Clayton ( born March 12, 1861 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, † October 26, 1946 in Canton, Massachusetts) was an American meteorologist.

Life and performance

Clayton was born as the son of the physician Henry H. Clayton ( 1826-1888 ). Because of his weak constitution, he attended a public school, but was taught at home. In 1878 he started the first investigations of local storms. After 1882 helped build the weather service in Tennessee, he was from 1884 to 1885 worked as an assistant at the Observatory of the University of Michigan. During this time he was co-editor of the journal American Meteorological Journal. After three months at the Harvard College Observatory Abbott Lawrence Rotch took him as an assistant at his privately financed the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, Massachusetts. There, Clayton led first by extensive clouds and wind observations that led to the discovery of Egnell - Clayton Act among others.

In 1894 he invited the dragon pioneer William Abner Eddy ( 1850-1909 ) a at the Blue Hill Observatory. On August 4, 1894, they managed to convey a thermograph with a team of five Eddy kite at an altitude of 436 meters. Through this pioneering and perfecting the weather dragons in the following years, Clayton established an efficient method to study the upper atmosphere, which was used until the 1940s in many aerological observatories around the world. Clayton also holds the still valid today world altitude record of a single dragon. On February 28, 1898, he brought a further developed by him Hargrave box kite with a sail area of ​​eight square meters to a height of 3801 meters. In 1905 he headed the expedition of Rotch and Léon- Philippe Teisserenc de Bort for the study of atmospheric conditions in the trade region in the North Atlantic with the help of weather kite and balloon. He put it back a distance of over 19,000 kilometers.

Clayton was anxious to use the results of his meteorological research for the improvement of weather forecasts. In particular, he was looking for a way to create reliable long-term forecasts on the basis of recurring weather conditions. Starting 1886, he signaled short-term local weather forecasts by the hoisting of flags at the observatory, which is visible due to its exposed location on the Great Blue Hill. Clayton sat a strong commitment to the National Weather Service, who was the U.S. Army to join to a civilian authority. This led in 1891 to form the United States Weather Bureau at the Ministry of Agriculture. Clayton worked there from 1891 to 1893. Subsequently, he returned to the Blue Hill Observatory, where he remained until 1909. 1896/97 he was at Blue Hill Weather Bulletin out weekly weather forecasts. From 1913 to 1922 Clayton worked for the Argentine Weather Service. During this time he began to intensively deal with the influence of solar activity on the weather. After his return, he founded a private weather service in Canton, Massachusetts, and worked as a consultant of private companies. In addition, he continued his research. In close collaboration with Charles Greeley Abbot, director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, he tried to find correlations between the fluctuations of the solar constant and the weather, which ultimately failed. Until 40 years later showed satellite observations that found by Abbot fluctuations of the solar constant is due to measurement errors had. A fruit of the collaboration Clayton with the Smithsonian Institution were he issued World Weather Records, a compilation of collected meteorological data worldwide.

Clayton was a founding member of the American Meteorological Society, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and long-time president of the Boston Scientific Society.

In 1907 he took the German balloon Pomerania on the Gordon Bennett race in Saint Louis in part, even though he had never made ​​a balloon ride. Together with the pilot Oskar Erbsloh he won the Cup after a 40 - hour journey that led to the balloon to the vicinity of 1400 km distant Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Clayton married in 1892 Frances Fawn Comyn. The couple had three children: Henry Comyn, Lawrence Locke and Frances Lindley.

Writings (selection )

  • Henry H. Clayton and Sterling P. Fergusson: Measurements of cloud heights and velocities. John Wilson and Son, Cambridge 1892
  • Sterling P. Fergusson and Henry H. Clayton: Exploration of the air by Means of kites. John Wilson and Son, Cambridge 1897
  • Henry H. Clayton: variation in solar radiation and the weather. Smithsonian Inst, Washington 1920
  • Henry H. Clayton: World Weather. Macmillan, New York 1923
  • Henry H. Clayton: The bearing of polar meteorology on world weather. In: WLG Joerg (ed.): Problems of polar research (. .. = Am Geogr Soc Special Publ 7), New York 1928, pp. 27-37
  • Henry H. Clayton: The sunspot period. Smithsonian Inst, Washington 1939
  • Henry H. Clayton: Solar relations to weather and life. The Clayton weather service, Canton, Massechusetts, 1943
Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory Milton (Massachusetts) Atmospheric sounding Lawrence Hargrave Trade wind National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Argentina Gordon Bennett Cup (ballooning) Name Authority File
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