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www.hist-geo-space-sci.net/1/49/2010/
doi:10.5194/hgss-1-49-2010
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under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Egeson's (George's) transtridecadal weather cycling and sunspots
1Halberg Chronobiology Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
2Leibniz Society of Sciences, Berlin, Germany
3Asian Office of Aerospace Research & Development, US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract. In the late 19th century, Charles Egeson, a map compiler at the Sydney Observatory, carried out some of the earliest research on climatic cycles, linking them to about 33-year cycles in solar activity, and predicted that a devastating drought would strike Australia at the turn of the 20th century. Eduard Brückner and William J. S. Lockyer, who, like Egeson, found similar cycles, with notable exceptions, are also, like the map compiler, mostly forgotten. But the transtridecadal cycles are important in human physiology, economics and other affairs and are particularly pertinent to ongoing discusions of climate change. Egeson's publication of daily weather reports preceded those officially recorded. Their publication led to clashes with his superiors and his personal life was marked by run-ins with the law and, possibly, an implied, but not proven, confinement in an insane asylum and premature death. We here track what little is known of Egeson's life and of his bucking of the conventional scientific wisdom of his time with tragic results.
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Citation: Halberg, F., Cornélissen, G., Bernhardt, K.-H., Sampson, M., Schwartzkopff, O., and Sonntag, D.: Egeson's (George's) transtridecadal weather cycling and sunspots, Hist. Geo Space. Sci., 1, 49-61, doi:10.5194/hgss-1-49-2010, 2010. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
