Heat and colonial weather science in the Straits Settlements c. 1820-1900

• Main Author: WILLIAMSON, Fiona
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: Heat; weather; urban heat; Straits Settlements; Malaya; Asian Studies; History; Physical and Environmental Geography
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/74; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/cis_research/article/1073/viewcontent/The_science_of_urban_heat_DRAFT.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Historical explorations of tropical heat in a colonial context have largely focussed on two interconnected spheres: colonial perceptions of place and body or, the implications of heat on different bodies in medical thought and practice. This paper seeks to move the discussion towards a history of colonial scientific thought about heat as component of weather and of escalating nature-induced hazards, studied in the observatory or meteorological department. A central theme is to think about heat in its relationship to nascent meso-scale atmospheric knowledge, meteorological theory and, as a by-product of urbanisation and land-use change. In so doing, it conceptualises the scientific understanding of heat as essentially responsive, embodied within science as result of how heat was prioritised within a local context and in the contemporary understanding of human-induced climatic change. The paper works thus across the disciplinary boundaries of history of science and environmental history to highlight an underexplored aspect of the Straits Settlements’ past: the scientific history of urban heat.