Luke Howard FRS (28 November 1772 – 21 March 1864) was a British manufacturing chemist and an amateur meteorologist with broad interests in science. His lasting contribution to science is a nomenclature system for clouds, which he proposed in an 1802 presentation to the Askesian Society.
He was born in London, the son of Robert Howard, a lamp manufacturer, and educated at the Quaker school in Burford, Oxfordshire. He was a Quaker, later converting to the Plymouth Brethren, and became a pharmacist by profession. After serving an apprenticeship with a pharmacist in Stockport, Cheshire he set up his own pharmacy in Fleet Street in 1793. Around 1797 he then went into partnership with William Allen to form the pharmaceutical company of Allen and Howard in London, manufacturing aspirin[citation needed] and quinine. The partnership was dissolved in 1807 and the company eventually (1856) became Howards and Sons.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821. He spent the years 1824 to 1852 in Ackworth, Yorkshire.