The Book Prize Index

The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies

Richard Hamblyn

"The early years of the nineteenth century saw an intriguing yet little-known scientific advance catapult a shy young Quaker to the dizzy heights of fame. The Invention of Clouds tells the story of an amateur meteorologist Luke Howard and his work to define what had hitherto been random and unknowable structures - clouds."--BOOK JACKET.

ScienceScience · medium confidenceScience81 signalsLlm Classifier: Science -> ScienceKeyword Classifier: Business & Economics -> Business & EconomicsAward Category: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology -> ScienceScience & Discovery

Award History

1 wins · 2 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and TechnologyMajor2001WinnerSecondary source
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-FictionMajor2002FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (2)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Luke Howard90%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    Luke Howard’s work defined cloud forms that had previously seemed random and unknowable, turning them into a language of the skies.

    Model confidence 72%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    30 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.