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Bernard de Silva
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« on: February 05, 2012, 01:53:34 PM » |
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“It’ll Be, Like Inigo Said”.
Stooped he was and wasted, his legs all bowed,
shuffling along unhurried upon his weary way.
Paused beside the curb until the traffic slowed,
that’s how I met old Joseph one November day.
“Tropical,” said I, by way of an opening word.
He nodded up toward the sun in a pitiless sky,
“Cycles sonny boy,” I guess to heat he referred,
“A weather bloke predicted it, in years gone by.”
“Inigo Jones, I don’t suppose you heard of him?
Replied I had, been round a year or two as well,
“Like Inigo said,”…the old bloke sounded grim,
“Sunspots, bring cycles…these, the seasons tell
“Massive solar flares detected, so the papers say
He got it right before, now, he’ll be right again.
Magnetic fluctuations, through the Milky Way,
firstly, this heat…then floods, from heavy rain.”
Forecasted spot on true, sure as my name’s Joe,
Lennox Walker…heard of him? Says the same.
’Course, that’s out of whack, with the C.S.I.R.O,
and the modern notions in the prediction game.
Traffic came to a halt, the signal optioned walk,
old Joe went on his way slowly shuffling ahead.
Upon the other footpath, he put paid to our talk,
“Sunspot activity, Mate…it’s just like Inigo said,”
©. Copyright: Bernard de Silva…4th. Feb. 2012.
By Way of Explanation.
PER KIND FAVOUR: Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Extract in part from;
Jones, Inigo Owen (1872–1954)
by John Steele
Inigo Owen Jones (1872-1954), by unknown photographer
La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria, H20475
Inigo Owen Jones (1872-1954), meteorologist, was born on 1 December 1872 at Croydon, Surrey, England, son of Owen Jones, civil engineer, and his wife Emilie Susanne, née Bernoulli, of a famous scientific family. Emilie's mother Dorothy Inigo-Jones was descended from the architect Inigo Jones (1573-1652). A family likeness between the two Inigos has been claimed.
In 1874 his parents migrated to Queensland where his father designed roads and railways. When 11 Inigo obtained a scholarship to the Brisbane Grammar School. Interested in astronomy and meteorology, he had an observatory at his parents' Kangaroo Point home and was a student member of the Royal Society of Queensland. In 1888 the colonial meteorologist Clement Wragge persuaded Jones to serve a cadetship in his office rather than attend the University of Sydney. When Wragge became interested in Edouard Bruckner's investigation of the changing levels of the Caspian Sea, comparing Bruckner's 35-year rainfall cycle with the 11-year sunspot cycle, Jones began to develop a special interest in long-range forecasting on the basis of sunspots.
In 1892 his parents bought a farm about sixty miles (97 km) north of Brisbane and named it Crohamhurst after a property near Inigo's birthplace. Inigo joined them there and on 2 February 1893 recorded an Australian record for one day's rainfall of 37.714 inches (958 mm). For the next thirty years he lived in relative obscurity, helping his father with pioneering work on the farm and continuing meteorological research as a hobby stimulated by first-hand experience of the farmer's dependence on weather forecasts.
In 1923 Jones successfully predicted the end of a dry spell and the resulting press publicity created demands for his forecasts. Urged on by scientific and other friends, he became a full-time forecaster — lecturing, writing and seeking sponsorship in 1927-34 from his home in suburban Dutton Park. The Queensland government appointed him director of the Bureau of Seasonal Forecasting of the Council of Agriculture, and with contributions from governments and industry, the Inigo Jones Seasonal Weather Forecasting Trust was formed in October 1928. From 1929 he wrote forecasts for many Australian newspapers...
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