SKETCH OF CLEVELAND ABBE. 



403 



spent upon Mount Adams could be best improved by paying special 

 attention to meteorology. An hourly record was begun of all impor- 

 tant atmospheric phenomena. Monthly reports of meteorological ob- 

 servations were received from observers in other cities. The interest 

 of the Chamber of Commerce was engaged in the organization of a 

 system of daily weather-reports and storm-predictions ; the gratuitous 

 co-operation of experienced observers was tendered ; and the use of the 

 "Western Union telegraph lines was offered at a nominal price. The 

 daily " Weather Bulletin " of the Cincinnati Observatory was issued, 

 first in manuscript form, for the use of the Chamber of Commerce, and 

 a week later in print, as an independent publication. It was supported 

 for three months by the Chamber of Commerce, then passed into the 

 hands of the observatory. Finally, the independent publication was 

 discontinued, and the bulletin only appeared under the same title in 

 the morning papers. Subsequently, the publication, by a manifold 

 process, of a daily weather-chart was undertaken, which, in consequence 

 of the observatory's lack of means, was kept up at the expense of the 

 Cincinnati oiBce of the "Western Union Telegraph Company. The 

 National Board of Trade meeting at Richmond, Virginia, united in a 

 memorial to Congress, the fruit of which, with other proceedings of a 

 similar character, among which was Professor Lapham's memorial 

 asking for the institution of signals for Milwaukee and Lake Michigan, 

 was the passage of a joint resolution authorizing the Secretary of War 

 to provide for taking meteorological observations at military posts in 

 the interior of the continent, and on the lakes and sea-coasts, for the 

 purpose of giving warning of the apj)roach and probable force of 

 storms. 



The superintendency of these observations, or the " Weather 

 Bureau," was put in the charge of General Albert J. Myer, Chief of 

 the Army Signal Service, who appointed Professor Abbe his assistant, 

 or meteorologist. In this position. Professor Abbe, during 1871, 

 organized the methods and work of the so-called " probability " or 

 study-room, in making weather-maps, drawing isobars, ordering storm- 

 signals, etc., and dictated the published official tri-daily synopses and 

 " probabilities " of the weather. In the same year he began and urged 

 the collection of lines of leveling, and in 1872, by laborious analysis, 

 deduced the altitudes of the Signal-Service barometers above sea-level. 

 He instituted in 1872, and reorganized in 1874, the work of publishing 

 a monthly weather-review, with its maps and studies of storms. He 

 urged the extension of simultaneous observations throughout the world, 

 as the only proper method of studying the weather ; and, as General Myer 

 distinctly avowed, the success of the negotiations of the Vienna Con- 

 gress of 1874 was due to following his advice. And he organized, in 

 1875, the work of preparing the material and publishing the " Daily 

 Bulletin of Simultaneous International Meteorological Observations." 

 Especially is the organization of the numerous State weather services 



