238 Master Minds of Modern Science 



For forecasting purposes information concerning 

 weather in the Atlantic Ocean is of vital importance to 

 this country, and a special system of reports from mer- 

 chant ships has therefore been organized between England 

 and America. A number of liners co-operate in this work. 



Even more important, if our weather reports are to be 

 as accurate as Science and organization can make them, 

 are the ' local ' reports collected by observers at more 

 than sixty weather stations in all parts of the British 

 Isles. These observers are men and women in all walks 

 of life ; sixteen of the stations are manned by Meteoro- 

 logical Office staff, the remainder being maintained by 

 voluntary observers — lighthouse-keepers, farmers, news- 

 paper reporters, and others — who have been trained to 

 take accurate readings of the weather signs at a specified 

 hour each day, and to send these in code, together with 

 details of rainfall, sunshine, winds, temperature, and 

 pressure, to the Meteorological Office. These observers 

 help both to make our weather forecasts accurate and to 

 record the history of the British climate. They have 

 been trained to look at the skies with a scientific eye. 

 After making their observations they go to the nearest 

 post-office and send off a mysterious-looking telegram to 

 Adastral House, Kingsway, which is the headquarters of 

 the Meteorological Office. 



There are also the stations, about three hundred in all, 

 which take observations a number of times daily, and 

 report weekly or monthly to the Meteorological Office. 

 The health resorts, too, maintain their own meteorological 

 stations, and every evening report their weather for the 

 day, giving temperature and duration of sunshine. 



Rainfall is measured at nearly 5000 stations, distri- 

 buted over the British Isles, and the statistics collected 

 are of very great value in connexion with water-power 

 schemes and water-supply generally. 



Even this network of weather observers does not 



