90 METEOROL(lGI('AL WORK OF SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



Accompauyiiig the above-quoted presentation of liis programme the 

 Secretary published a valuable, and now liistoric, report by Prof. 

 Loomis upon the meteorology of the United States, in which he showed 

 what advantage society might exi)ect from the study of storms, what 

 had been already done in this country toward making the necessary 

 observations, and, finally, what encouragement there was to a further 

 prosecution of the same researches. He then jjresented in detail a plan 

 for unifying- all the work done by existing observers, and for supple- 

 menting it by that of new observers at needed points, for a systematic 

 supervision, and, finally, for a thorough discussion of the observations 

 collected. 



On the J 3th of December, 1847, the Board of Regents adopted the 

 "programme of organization," and on the 15th inaugurated the sys- 

 tem of meteorological observations by an appropriation of $1,000 for 

 the purcliase of instruments and other related expenses. 



In the following year (1848) Prof. Espy, who was then the official 

 meteorologist of the Navy Department, was assigned to duty under the 

 direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In connec- 

 tion withEsj^y, the Secretary (Henry) addressed a circular letter to all 

 persons who would probably be disposed to take part in the contem- 

 plated systems of observations, and cooperation was solicited from the 

 existing systems under the direction of the Surgeon-General, and of 

 the States of New York and Pennsylvania. As a result of these efforts 

 the Institution at the close of ISIO, already had one hundred and fifty 

 daily observers, and the number continued to increase. 



In order to unify the methods adopted by observers, Prof. Guyot 

 was requested to prepare a pamphlet of Directions for Meteorological 

 Observations,* which was publislied in 1850, and to compile a collec- 

 tion of Meteorological Tables, which was published as a volume of the 

 Miscellaneous Collections in 1852. In 1857, after careful revision by 

 the author, a second and much enlarged edition of the Tables was pub- 

 lished, and in 1859, a third, with further amendments. xUthougli de- 

 signed primarily for the meteorological observers reporting to the 

 Smithsonian Institution, the Tables obtained a much wider circulation, 

 and were extensively used by meteorologists and physicists in Europe 

 and the United States. An imj)ortant step taken at the inception of 

 the Smithsonian system was the introduction of accurate instruments. 

 Standard barometers and thermometers were imported from Paris and 

 London, with which those made for the use of the Institution were 

 compared, and sets of such apparatus were furnished to observers. 



In 1849, Prof. Henry personally requested the telegraph companies to 



* Smithsonian Institution. Directions for Meteorological Obser\'ations, intended 

 for the first ch\ss of observers. Washington City, 1850. Reprinted with additions 

 in Annual Report for 1855, and again us a part of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous 

 Collections in 1870. 



