SYMONS, GEORGE JAMES (1838-1900)

This article appears in Volume V26, Page 287 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SYMONS, GEORGE JAMES (1838-1900) , English meteorologist, was born in Pimlico, London, on the 6th of August 1838. In 186o he obtained a post in the meteorological department of the Board of Trade under Admiral Robert Fitzroy, who was then deeply interested in the subject of

storm

-warnings, and, in the same year he published the first annual volume of British Rainfall, which contained records from 168 stations in England and Wales, but none from

Scotland

or Ireland. Three years later he resigned his appointment at the Board of Trade, where his rainfall inquiries were not appreciatedat least not as a prior study of

storm

-warningsand devoted his whole energies to the organization of a band of volunteer observers for the collection of particulars of rainfall throughout the British Isles. So successful was he in this object that by 1866 he was able to show results which gave a

fair

FAIR

representation of the distribution of rainfall, and the number of recorders gradually increased until the last volume of British Rainfall which he lived to edit (that for 1899) contained figures from 3528 stations2894 in England and Wales, 446 111

Scotland

, and 188 in Ireland. Apart from their scientific

interest

INTEREST

, these annual reports are of

great

GREAT

practical

PRACTICAL

importance, since they afford engineers and others engaged in water

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

much-needed data for their calculations, the former absence of which had on some occasions given rise to grave mistakes. Symons himself devoted

special

SPECIAL

study not only to rainfall, but also to the evaporation and percolation of water as affecting underground streams, and his extensive knowledge rendered him a valuable

witness

WITNESS
WITNESS (from O. Eng. witan, to know)

before parliamentary committees. In other branches of meteorology also he took a keen

interest

INTEREST

, and he was particularly indefatigable, though consistently unsuccessful, in the quest of a genuine thunderbolt. The history of the science too attracted his attention, and he possessed a fine library of meteorological works, which passed to the Meteorological Society at his death. Of that society he became a member when only eighteen, and he retained his connexion with it in various official capacities up to the end of his life. He served as its president in 18So, and in view of the celebration of its

jubilee

JUBILEE (or JUBILE), YEAR OF

was re-elected to that office in 1900, but the illness that caused his death prevented him from acting. He died in London on the loth of March 1900.

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