The History of Organization of the International System of Magnetic and Meteorological Observations in the Second Half of the 19th Century

The article deals with some little-studied pages from the history of the development of international cooperation in the field of meteorology. With climate being a transboundary phenomenon, the international cooperation of researchers who studied it was a natural process. The first attempts to create an international network of meteorological stations date back to the mid-18th century. The article offers unique data about the distribution of meteorological stations by countries in the mid-19th century. The author looks into the stages in the development of the international network of meteorological stations and observatories. Special attention is given to the role of the Main Physical Observatory, and the scientists who worked there – first and foremost, the Observatory’s Director, Heinrich von Wild (Genrikh Ivanovich Vilʼd) – in the formation and evolution of this network. An important event in the development of meteorology was the 1st Meteorological Congress held in Vienna in 1873. One of the outcomes of this congress was creation of the Permanent Meteorological Committee. After the 2nd International Meteorological Congress held in Rome in 1879, the International Meteorological Committee was set up to replace the Permanent Meteorological Committee. Heinrich von Wild was appointed its President. The IMC’s goals were promoting and coordinating the work of meteorologists around the world. After some modernization, the committee has existed up to this day. The article offers the data on the contacts between Russia and other countries such as the UK, the USA, and Japan in the field of meteorology. Thus, as a result of the development of contacts between Russia and the UK, a magnetic and meteorological observatory was set up in Novo-Arkhangelsk (now Sitka, Alaska). This article is based on the archival records from the Russian State Archive of the Navy.