id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
hom-3	Cullen, Beth; Geros, Christina Leigh	Constructing the Monsoon: Colonial Meteorological Cartography, 1844–1944	2020	26	.pdf	application/pdf	11003	354	32	The sheer quantity of data at Walker’s disposal gave multiple dimensions to “empirical methods”; yet, he writes that graphic representations “are open to some objection”, particularly when “the disturbing factors are numerous or the connection sought is slight”, as the graphs may be interpreted differently by each observer.108 Walker did recognize that the “purely graphic” methods used in the discovery of the isobaric “see-saw” between Argentina and India or Australia had “produced the first map showing the distribution of the world-wide surge”.109 However, referencing a similar study by Bigelow that had included a more complex set of values, Walker continued to point to graphic failings stating that the work had been “lessened by excessive and rather arbitrary smoothing” of data.110 Subsequently, when assessing scientific methods applied to studies of the Indian monsoon and forecasting models, he stressed the importance of “not mere visual impressions from plotted curves”, but statistically-proven relationships.111 With the Empire’s social and economic health dependent on monsoon rainfall and facing the same challenge as his predecessors, Walker chartered a new territory for monsoon forecasting based on “twenty-eight factors” which he used to “systematically examine” interrelations between the Indian monsoon and global circulation patterns.112 For Walker, thirty years of weather data and comparative numerical analysis revealed clues about global meteorological affairs through tables and line graphs rather than cartographic depictions. This is not to deny the material reality of monsoon winds and rains, but to acknowledge that “the monsoon” is also, in part, a social construction, produced through human ideas, terminology, modes of measurement, and representation.	cache/hom-3.pdf	txt/hom-3.txt