82 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



can be ascertained by noting the particular number flashed by 

 the light. 15 A, August 31, 280. 



WEATHER TELEGRAPHY. 



Avery important extension of the work of the Signal-office, 

 as far as its system of weather telegraphy is concerned, is 

 about to go into operation. The forecasts now published in 

 all the daily papers in the United States, and which are 

 eagerly scanned by those who are desirous of knowing what 

 is in store for them in the way of weather, are, of course, only 

 serviceable to those who live in the places of the publication 

 of those papers, or can be reached by them with little delay 

 through the mail. It is now proposed to call the post-offices 

 of the country into requisition as intermediate agents for dis- 

 seminating this intelligence, for which purpose the territory 

 east of the Mississippi has been divided into districts of about 

 two hundred miles in extent each way, and each having a 

 point of distribution near its centre, to which the " probabil- 

 ities" will be telegraphed from Washington, and from which 

 two copies of the report are to be sent to all post-offices with- 

 in the district which can be reached by mail as early as six 

 o'clock P.M. each day. 



It is well known that country post-offices are the centres 

 of intelligence to rural districts, and, in order to afford the 

 farmers in the community especially an opportunity of profit- 

 ing by this information, postmasters receiving these dis- 

 patches are to place a copy as soon as furnished in a con- 

 spicuous situation, where the public can see. and read it. The 

 New York Herald of January 18 contains a chart, furnished 

 by the Signal-office, illustrating the districts referred to, from 

 which any one can ascertain the central office whence his own 

 information will be disseminated. 



