50 Years Ago

'[A Symposium on] Solar Variations, Climatic Change and Related Geophysical Problems' — It became abundantly clear how large a number of investigators are patiently accumulating evidence of the amplitude, character, effects and especially the dating of climatic fluctuations all over the world. Speculations regarding the causes abound; supporters of each of the popular theories — solar variation, atmospheric turbidity, carbon dioxide, ozone, variations in the Earth's orbital elements — find their several gods alternately set up and cast down ... It now seems almost certain that no one simple panacea is in any way adequate to explain the intriguing patterns of climatic fluctuation to which the evidence points.

From Nature 10 June 1961

100 Years Ago

In the meteorological charts of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans for the month of June ... there is an interesting article on the phenomenon of St. Elmo's Fire or corposants (corpus sanctum), the harmless luminous electricity of low intensity seen sometimes at night on ships' masts, &c., during unsettled weather. Many examples of authenticated experiences in olden and modern times are quoted, e.g. one by Columbus in October, 1495, during a severe storm. It was then assumed that the light emanated from the saint's body, and was a sure sign that the gale was at its maximum ... The phenomenon is not unfrequent on land; it was quoted by Caesar and others. On the summit of Ben Nevis the observatory was at times ablaze with it; the observers were not in any way inconvenienced, except by a slight tickling sensation in head and hands.

From Nature 8 June 1911