Abstract Summary
In 1877 the Scottish Meteorological Society proposed the establishment of a meteorological station on Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain, but attempts at raising funds came to nothing. Having read of the efforts to establish an observatory, the English meteorologist, Clement Wragge, offered to take observations on the mountain. He took his first readings on 31 May 1881 and continued to do so until the autumn, resuming his observations through the summer of 1882. Wragge made a daily trek from his home base at Fort William up to the summit, starting at 5am and finishing at 3pm. Enroute he took observations at a number of stations using instruments either placed along the route or carried. Wragge kept a ‘Rough Observation Book’ in which he recorded each of his journeys. His labours were crucial in supporting the successful movement to establish a permanent observatory on Ben Nevis in 1883; Sir William Thomson noting in a public meeting in Glasgow that ‘the observations conducted by Mr Wragge with great skill, endurance, and enthusiasm … seemed to him … a stronger testimony than any other consideration that could be offered as to the importance of such a work.’ This paper considers the socio-materialities of Wragge’s field-campaign, particularly his field notebooks and travelling instruments, and roles they played in both supporting his argument for a permanent Scottish mountain observatory and constructing his heroic and self-denying scientific personae. The paper also interrogates wider attitudes to field meteorology in an era of observatory science.
