author
T. B. (Thomas Belden) Butler
1806–1873
A Connecticut doctor, lawyer, judge, and congressman who also wrote an ambitious 1856 book on weather and forecasting. His career moved from medicine and law into public service, but readers today are most likely to meet him through The Philosophy of the Weather. And a Guide to Its Changes.
1 Audiobook
The Philosophy of the Weather. And a Guide to Its Changes
by T. B. (Thomas Belden) Butler
About the author
Born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, Thomas Belden Butler studied medicine at Yale and began practice in Norwalk before turning to the law. He was admitted to the bar in 1837 and built a long public career in Connecticut politics and government.
Butler served in the Connecticut House of Representatives for many years, later sat in the state senate, and represented Connecticut in the U.S. House as a Whig from 1849 to 1851. He went on to become a judge and eventually Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, holding that role from 1870 until his death in 1873.
For audiobook listeners, Butler stands out as the author of The Philosophy of the Weather. And a Guide to Its Changes (1856), a wide-ranging attempt to explain weather patterns and help ordinary readers observe coming changes in the sky. The book reflects the curiosity of a 19th-century public thinker who moved comfortably between science, law, and civic life.