551: Defining the Wind by Scott Huler
551.518: Huler, Scott. Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale and How a 19th-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry. New York: Crown Publishers, 2004. 250 pp. ISBN 1-4000-4884-2.
Dewey Construction:
- 500: Natural sciences and mathematics
- 550: Earth sciences
- 551: Geology, hydrology, meteorology
- 551.5: Meteorology
- 551.51: Composition, regions, dynamics of atmosphere
- 551.518: Wind
In 1983, Scott Huler was working as a copy editor and happened upon a bit of poetry in the Merriam-Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. It was a scale for measuring the force of wind, with numbered level from 0 to 12. Each level has a name for the type of wind, a rough speed measurement, and then a description that infuses science with poetry at a level that is almost awe-inspiring.
It was the Beaufort Wind Scale.