Wells' Work On Dew
In the 1780s, Wells and a few others had the idea that dew and frost occurred when the ground was a few degrees colder than the air above. But they thought the cold was caused by the dew and frost, not the other way around. In the autumn of 1811 Wells took some measurements and soon came to doubt his old idea. He began serious experiments soon after and published the results in August 1814. He compared the formation of dew under varying conditions of material, location, temperature, humidity, weather, cloud cover, season, and time of day. Wells concluded that dew is a condensation of water vapor in the air caused by just the right combination of conditions involving especially temperature, temperature change, and heat conductivity of materials.
Wells inquiry into the nature of dew were widely cited in the 1830s as a outstanding example of inductive scientific inquiry. Sir J. F. W. Herschel used it as the primary illustration in his Discourse on the study of Natural Philosophy, calling the theory, "one of the most beautiful specimens we can call to mind of inductive experimental enquiry lying within a moderate compass." In 1836, the Encyclopedia Metropolitana reported, "We know of no work in our day which has been more universally admired than the Treatise of Dr. Wells, certainly none that practically exemplifies in a purer and better form the admirable inductive system which it was the object of Bacon to teach." John Tyndall and William Whewell praised it similarly.
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