Describes how nineteenth-century British admiral Francis Beaufort, a hydrographer to the British Admiraltry, created the Beaufort Scale, a scientific classification that measures the strength of the wind, utilizing just 110 words to define thirteen gradations of wind. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.
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<i>Defining the Wind</i> is a wonderfully written account of one man’s crusade to learn about what the wind is made of by tracing the history of the Beaufort Scale and its eccentric creator, Sir Francis Beaufort. It’s as much about the language we use to describe our world as it is an exhortation to observe it more closely.
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