i4o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The fact is that the U. S. Signal Service, which was the forerunner of 

 the present U. S. Weather Bureau, was established in 1870, and that 

 Japan had, as early as in 1872, a meteorological observatory at Hako- 

 date, and the Japanese meteorological service was organized in 1875, 

 the exchange of international simultaneous reports with the U. S. Signal 

 Office of Washington having been established twenty-eight years ago. 

 The organization of the Japanese Meteorological Service, however, was 

 not completed until a system of weather telegraphy was inaugurated 

 and weather maps with forecasts were printed in 1883. 



The Meteorological Service of Japan is placed under the direction 

 of the Central Meteorological Observatory and under the supervision 

 of the Minister of State for Education; it maintains 134 meteorological 

 stations, of which 70 are the provincial stations of the first order, 2 are 

 attached to the Central Observatory, 7 are controlled by the Governor 

 General of Formosa and the rest are the stations of the second order. 

 All of these first and second stations send their meteorological reports 

 to the Central Meteorological Observatory and exchange daily telegrams 

 with the latter. Besides these, there are 1,214 stations of the third 

 order which consists of village offices, district offices, police stations, 

 schools, etc. Each is provided with a set of maximum and minimum 

 thermometers, an ordinary thermometer, rain gauge, etc., and each 

 observer makes daily observations at 10 a.m. (135th meridian time or 

 8 p.m. 75th meridian time). They send their reports by mail to the 

 respective provincial stations to which they belong. 



The stations of the first order make their observations every hour 

 and those of the second order six observations daily. The principal 

 instruments in use at a station are a standard barometer of the Fortin 

 design; a portable mercurial barometer; a psychrometer of August's 

 pattern; a standard thermometer (Cassella or Fuess) ; maximum and 

 minimum thermometers (Fuess) ; Robinson cup-anemometer with elec- 

 tric contact device; a wind vane; a rain gauge; and an evaporometer. 

 In addition to these instruments, the stations of the first order and 

 most of second-order stations are furnished with solar radiation- 

 thermometers, terrestrial radiation-thermometers, earth- thermometers 

 for the depths of 0.0, 0.3, 1.2, 3.0 m., etc., and a seismograph of the 

 Gray-Milne type. All these instruments are minutely examined and 

 compared with the standard instruments of the Central Meteorological 

 Observatory. The method of observation and reduction conforms 

 strictly to the decisions of the International Meteorological Committee. 

 The Abercromby-Hildebrandsson classification is adopted for the ob- 

 servation of cloud forms, and the International Meteorological Tables 

 are used for the reduction of observations. For computation of hu- 

 midity from psychrometric observations, Angot's tables are used. The 

 provincial stations publish monthly and annual reports, and exchange 

 their publications with one another. The employees of the stations 



