Inigo Owen Jones
Encyclopedia
Inigo Owen Jones was a meteorologist and farmer. He was born in Croydon
, Surrey
, England
to Owen Jones a civil engineer and a descendant of the architect Inigo Jones
. His mother was from the Bernoulli family of mathematicians, and Inigo attributed his interest in meteorology and astronomy to this background.
In 1874 Jones's parents migrated to Australia
, settling on a property called Crohamhurst in the Glass House Mountains north of Brisbane
in eastern Queensland. He became interested in meteorology while working on the family farm. The Queensland Government meteorologist Clement Lindley Wragge
was so impressed with Inigo's ability as a schoolboy that he recruited him as an assistant in 1888.
He was for many years a synodsman of the Brisbane diocese of the Church of England.
Jones studied the variation in sunspot
cycles that had been discovered by Edouard Bruckner, and came to the conclusion that anomalies were caused by the interaction of the planets Jupiter
, Saturn
, Uranus
and Neptune
. This became the basis of his long-range weather forecasts, although he never claimed to be able to make day-to-day predictions. Although Jones failed to have his methods recognised as soundly based, by any substantial body of accredited scientific opinion he was widely recognised for his successes, especially by farmers.http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/scripts/fam-dynindex.php3?EID=P001087http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0008.html#8085
Inigo Jones became a full-time forecaster and lecturer in 1927 and founded the privately operated Crohamhurst Observatory in south-east Queensland
. An Australian Senate
hearing was told in 1938 that Jones was a "wonderful patriot" and that he was "held in the highest esteem by the big man and also the small man on the land".
At the 11th January 1939 meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) his ideas on cyclical variations theory was severely discredited, especially by Edward Kidson, the New Zealand government meteorologist, and yet farmers credited and worked their farms using his long-range forecasts.
Jones died at home on his farm at Crohamhurst, Queensland.
His assistant Lennox Walker expanded Jones' theories and continued marketing long range forecasts until 2000, when he passed the business over to his own son Hayden Walker. http://www.worldweather.com.au/History.htm
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to Owen Jones a civil engineer and a descendant of the architect Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...
. His mother was from the Bernoulli family of mathematicians, and Inigo attributed his interest in meteorology and astronomy to this background.
In 1874 Jones's parents migrated to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, settling on a property called Crohamhurst in the Glass House Mountains north of Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
in eastern Queensland. He became interested in meteorology while working on the family farm. The Queensland Government meteorologist Clement Lindley Wragge
Clement Lindley Wragge
Clement Lindley Wragge was a meteorologist born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England. After training in law, Wragge became renowned in the field of meteorology, winning the Scottish Meteorological Society's Gold Medal and starting the trend of using people's names for cyclones...
was so impressed with Inigo's ability as a schoolboy that he recruited him as an assistant in 1888.
He was for many years a synodsman of the Brisbane diocese of the Church of England.
Jones studied the variation in sunspot
Sunspot
Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear visibly as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature....
cycles that had been discovered by Edouard Bruckner, and came to the conclusion that anomalies were caused by the interaction of the planets Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
, Uranus
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
and Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
. This became the basis of his long-range weather forecasts, although he never claimed to be able to make day-to-day predictions. Although Jones failed to have his methods recognised as soundly based, by any substantial body of accredited scientific opinion he was widely recognised for his successes, especially by farmers.http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/scripts/fam-dynindex.php3?EID=P001087http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0008.html#8085
Inigo Jones became a full-time forecaster and lecturer in 1927 and founded the privately operated Crohamhurst Observatory in south-east Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. An Australian Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
hearing was told in 1938 that Jones was a "wonderful patriot" and that he was "held in the highest esteem by the big man and also the small man on the land".
At the 11th January 1939 meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) his ideas on cyclical variations theory was severely discredited, especially by Edward Kidson, the New Zealand government meteorologist, and yet farmers credited and worked their farms using his long-range forecasts.
Jones died at home on his farm at Crohamhurst, Queensland.
His assistant Lennox Walker expanded Jones' theories and continued marketing long range forecasts until 2000, when he passed the business over to his own son Hayden Walker. http://www.worldweather.com.au/History.htm
Sources
- Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre (2001). "Federation and Meteorology", retrieved 30 December 2005.
- Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology (2001). 100 Years of Science and Service Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology
- Sherratt, Tim (2005) "Inigo Jones: the weather prophet", retrieved 30 December 2005.