12 DEPAETMENTAL REPORTS. 



during the coining year, and effort made to have as many routes 

 served with the morning forecasts as may be possible. 



STEEL TOWERS FOR THE DISPLAY OF STORM WARNINGS. 



In order to meet the increasing demands of coinmercial and ship- 

 ping interests for storm warnings of the highest possible efficiency, 

 it has been necessary to reorganize the equipment and provide tall 

 masts or fiagstaffs at a large number of stations at which either 

 flags or lanterns are displayed. An important improvement in this 

 connection has been made during the past year by the adoption of a 

 specially constructed steel tower with a flagpole at the summit. 

 After careful tests and improvements of a sample tower of this 

 character, a standard pattern was devised and full drawings and 

 specifications prepared. These towers are now under construction by 

 contract, and steps have been taken to equip about fifty of the more 

 important display stations. 



Wherever it is possible to do so, electricity is used for the illumina- 

 tion of the lanterns used in the night warnings, and special efforts 

 have been made to increase the efficiency and improve the quality, 

 not only of the red and white lanterns illuminated by electric lights, 

 but also the lanterns supplied to our ordinary stations where elec- 

 tricity is not available and where oil must be used. 



All this work is in an advanced state, and it is expected that fifty 

 or more stations will be fully equipped before the occurrence of the 

 severe storms of the fall and winter seasons. 



WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 



The Secretary of Agriculture, recognizing the advantages that 

 would result to commerce and navigation by the establishment of 

 electrical communication between vessels at sea and exposed points 

 on our lake and sea coasts, and also between the islands along said 

 coasts and the mainland, has authorized the Weather Bureau to sj^s- 

 tematically investigate the various methods of electrical communica- 

 tion without wires. The progress already made in this investigation 

 is eminently satisfactory. The results thus far achieved will be com- 

 municated at another time. 



BAROMETRIC REDUCTIONS. 



A thorough reduction of the barometric observations taken by the 

 service during the past thirty years to a homogeneous system has 

 been undertaken. This study includes an investigation of the vari- 

 ous elevations occupied by the barometers, the normals at each sta- 

 tion and the variations from year to year and from month to month. 

 A careful review of the several systems heretofore employed by the 

 Bureau in making reductions to sea level has been completed, and a 

 new set of gradients and reduction constants inside and outside the 

 Rocky Mountain Plateau region has been constructed from many 

 years' observations. A new set of pressure reduction tables is being 

 prepared, which will include the results of this discussion. It is pro- 

 posed to extend the system so that theoretical maps of the weather 

 conditions may be readily constructed as often as desired at the 3,500- 

 foot plane and the 10,000-foot plane, as well as at sea level. This 

 work has been greatly needed liy the service for many years, not only 



