National Scioilific and Educational Institutions. 30I 



United vStatcs. The reports are received about ten o'clock in the morning, and the 

 changes on the maps are made by temporarily attaching to the several stations pieces 

 of card of different colors to denote different conditions of the weather as to clear- 

 ness, cloudiness, rain, or snow. This map is not only of interest to visitors in exhib- 

 iting the kind of weather which their friends at a distance are experiencing, but is 

 also of importance in determining at a glance the probable changes which may 

 soon be expected.' 



In a still earlier report Professor Henrj' said; 



We are indebted to the National Telegraph line for a series of observations from 

 New Orleans to New York, and as far westward as Cincinnati, Ohio, which have 

 been published in the ' ' Evening Star, ' ' of this city. These reports have excited much 

 interest, and could they be extended farther north, and more generally to the west- 

 ward, they would furnish important information as to the approach of storms. We 

 hope in the course of another year to make such an arrangement with the telegraph 

 lines as to be able to give warning on the eastern coast of the approach of storms, 

 since the investigations which have been made at the Institution fully indicate the 

 fact that as a general rule the storms of our latitude jjursue a definite course.-' 



In 1868, Cleveland Abbe, then director of the Cincinnati Observatory, 

 revived the vSniithsonian idea of meteorological forecasts, and suggested 

 to the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce that Cincinnati should l)e made 

 the headquarters of meteorological observation for the United States, ' ' for 

 the purpose of collecting and comparing telegraphic weather reports from 

 all parts of the land and making dedtictions therefrom." His proposals 

 were favorably received, and he began, September i, 1869, to is,site the 

 Weather Bulletin of the Cincinnati Observatory, which he contintied 

 until, in Jantiary, 1871, he was summoned to Wa.shington to assist in 

 organizing the national meteorological service, with which he has ever 

 since been identified. 



The Smith.sonian meteorological sy.stem continued its fiuictions tintil 

 it was finally consigned to the custody of the Chief Sigual Officer of the 

 Army. Lite all the efforts of this Institution, this work was in the direc- 

 tion of supplementing and harmonizing the work of all others, and atten- 

 tion was especially devoted to preparing and distributing blank forms in 

 this direction, calculating and publi.shing extensive papers for systema- 

 tizing ob.servations, introducing standard instrtunents, collecting all public 

 doctiments, printed matter, and mantiscript records bearing on the meteor- 

 ology of the American Continent, submitting these materials for scien- 

 tific discti-ssion, and publi.shing their rcsttlts. The Smith.sonian work was, 

 during its whole exi.stence, tnider the immediate personal direction of 

 Professor Henry, a.s.si.sted by Professor Arnold Guyot, who, in 1850, pre- 

 pared and publi.shed an exhaustive .series of directions for meteorological 

 ob.servations, intended for the first-class observers cooperating with the 

 SmitlLsonian Institution. 



'Thirteenth Annual Report of the vSecretary of the Smithsonian Institution, p. 32. 

 (1S58.) 



"Twelfth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smith.sonian Institution, JS57, 

 p. 26 ; also Twentieth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, 1S65, pp. 54-57. 



