444 Admiral Fitz-Roy [March 28, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, March 28, 1862. 

 John Petee Gassiot, Esq. F.R.S. Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Rear-Admibal Fitz-Roy, F.R.S. 



An Explanation of the Meteorological Telegraphy, and its Basis, 

 now under trial at the Board of Trade. 



The telegraphic communication of meteorological changes from distant 

 stations to a central position, whence occasional warnings of impending 

 storms might be given, which has been organized and tried by Govern- 

 ment, had its origin at a meeting of the British Association in 1859, at 

 Aberdeen, under the presidency of that deeply lamented Prince whose 

 short life was wholly devoted to the most useful objects. It was then 

 resolved by their Council that application should be made to Her 

 Majesty's Government for an organization and trial of a plan by which 

 the approach of storms might be telegraphed to distant localities. At 

 two meetings in Buckingham Palace, early the following year (1860), 

 minutes were authorized on this subject, and correspondence ensued 

 which resulted in establishing a telegraphic communication of meteoro- 

 logical facts between twenty home stations, besides foreign ones — and 

 daily with Paris. 



The Aberdeen meeting had only just terminated, when public 

 attention was startled by the loss of the * Royal Charter.' It so 

 happened that the storm which caused the destruction of that iron ship 

 (notwithstanding power of steam additional to that of sails — and while 

 a sailing ship, managed differently, was bearing its brunt uninjured 

 within a few miles distant *) — that storm, completely cyclonic, passed 

 over the middle of England, and could be more fully investigated than 

 any storm hitherto, because in every direction observers happened to 

 be ready, who recorded ample statical facts, and many valuable 

 dynamical results. 



Advancing gradually, the first cautionary or storm-warning signals 

 were made early in 1861, but on that occasion were unhappily dis- 

 regarded in the Tyne, and on the following days awful losses of life 

 were witnessed on the north-east coasts. From that time to the present 

 similar warnings have been given there and elsewhere, — with increas- 

 ingly advantageous effects, it appears — if one may judge, in the first 



* * The Gumming.' 



