92 METEOROLOGICAL WORK OF SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



Smitlisoniaii observations were practically completed, Mr. Scliott* took 

 the data and prepared elaborate tables ot" tenii^erature and precipita- 

 tion, wliicli were published in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowl- 

 edge. , 



Prof. Coflint compiled his great work on the laws of the winds, and 

 contributed various lesser works to the bibliography of the Institution 

 on meteorological subjects. 



The first collection of meteorological tables compiled by Dr. Guyot, 

 at the request of the Institution, was published in 1852, as a volume of 

 the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, and new editions were pub- 

 lished in 1857, and 18.59. Twenty-tive years later the wfU'k Avas again 

 revised, and a fourth edition was published (1884). The demand for 

 these tables exhausted this edition in a few years; it was then de- 

 cided to re-cast the work entirely, and publish it in three parts, one of 

 meteorological, one of geograx^hical, and one of physical tables, each 

 representative of the latest knowledge in its field, and independent of 

 the others, but the three forming a homogeneous series. 



The desirability of establishing a meteorological departnuMit under 

 one comprehensive system, with an adeipiate appropriation of funds, 

 was frequently urged by the Smithsonian Institution, and in 18(59 an 

 api^ropriation of $25,000 was made by Congress for the adoption and 

 nuiintenance of a code of weather signals on the northern lakes, under 

 the direction of the Chief of the Signal Cor])s of the United States 

 Army. The Government having thus evinced a willingness to take 

 charge of the meteorological system of the country, and it being the 

 policy of the Institution to do nothing which could be accomplished as 

 well by other means, the work of the Smithsonian in this direction was 

 freely relinquished by the Institution, although its formal transfer to 

 the War Department did not take place until 1874. 



During the period when the Smithsonian was directly in charge of 

 meteorological researches in the United States, its expenditures in 

 this connection, which had been voluntarily assumed, were over |G0,000. 

 In addition to this the Institution made a contribution of incalculable 

 value in the stimulus given to investigations of this class by the active 

 personal interest of its first Secretary, who always devoted much time 



*Schot.t, C. A.: Base cLart of the Uiii ted States. Discussion of Caswell's meteoro- 

 logical observations at Providence, R. I.; Cleavelaud's meteorological observations 

 at Brunswick, Me.; Hayes's physical observations in the Arctic Seas; Hildreth and 

 Wood's meteorological observations at Marietta, Ohio; Kane's astronomical observa- 

 tions in the Arctic Seas ; Kane's magnetic observations in the Arctic Seas ; Kane's 

 meteorological observations in the Arctic Seas; Kane's physical observations in the 

 Arctic Seas; Kane's tidal observations in the Arctic Seas; McClintock's meteoro- 

 logical observations in the Arctic Seas ; Smith's meteorologcfil observations m.ade near 

 Washington, Ark.; Tables, distribution, and variation of atmospheric temperature; 

 Tables of rain and snow in the United States. 



t Coffin, J. II. : Orbit and phenomena of meteoric fire ball; Psychrometrical tables; 

 Storms of 1859; Winds of the globe; Winds of the northern hemisphere. 



