xxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



ini])L'lus given by this Congress to a system of synchronous 

 observations throughout tlie world. 



The presence of tlie distinguislied chief of tlie Weather Bu- 

 reau of tlie United States Army Signal Office was sufficient 

 to call forth a unanimous vote on the part of the Congress, 

 expressing its sense of the importance of synchronous obser- 

 vations to the study of the phenomena of storms; and to the 

 personal exertions of General Myer is due the establishing at 

 that meetimr of an ao:reement between the heads of the 

 weather bureaus of England, Russia,Turkey, and the United 

 States, by which a uniform system of observations was agreed 

 upon. Into this arrangement, subsequently, Holland, Spain, 

 Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and China have 

 also entered; so that, beginning with the first of January, 1874, 

 we shall witness a system of synchronous observations made 

 throughout almost the entire northern hemisphere at seven 

 hours and thirty-five minutes A.M., Washington time. As 

 other nations and the private meteorological observers, as 

 well as other official observers of the govei'nments, enter into 

 this system of observations (which, undoubtedly, will event- 

 ually extend to the ocean as well as to the land), we shall 

 soon realize to the fullest extent the great power conferred 

 upon the human race through the application of electricity 

 to the telegraph, since it will become possible ere long to fol- 

 low almost any disturbance that may occur any where on the 

 northern hemisphere from its inception to its maturity and 

 final decay. Hopes have been widely expressed that, through 

 such a system of world-wide observations, it may become 

 possible to predict for Eurojie many of the storms which are 

 supposed to pass from America across the Atlantic. But 

 without attributing too much importance to such a beneficial 

 system of storm warnings (since it is highly probable that 

 most of our American storms die out before reaching the 

 coast of Europe), there still remains enough of possible bene- 

 fit to be derived, both to meteorological study and to the com- 

 mercial interests of mankind, to justify almost any labor that 

 looks to the completion of so magnificent a system of storm 

 studies, and the Army Signal Office is to be congratulated 

 upon the success which lias attended its labors in this direc- 

 tion. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that sfich success 

 as lias been attained could scarcely have been hoped for un- 



