Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Meteorology, Commerce, Instruments

    Begins by describing the popularity of the weather as a topic of conversation, especially when the weather is 'exceptional'. The 'uncommonly fine summer' of 1865, for example, created many 'weather prophets' as well as much conversation. Given the number of predictions, suggests that the weather 'might quite properly be made a thing to be bet upon', with people 'betting on the rise and fall of the barometer, just as speculators do upon the rise and fall of consols'. Expects that this form of speculation 'would be fully as substantial as many other', and hopes to see the establishment of a 'Weather Exchange', where 'weather-brokers' would buy and sell such quantities as inches of mercury. Stresses that one advantage of this form of wager is that the 'men could not rig the market' by causing an 'artificial elevation or depression in the tube'.