10 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



Within six months of the receipt of his first telegrams 

 Admiral Fitz Roy had gained sufficient confidence in his or- 

 ganisation to issue a warning of a coming storm (February, 

 1 86 1 ), and within a year he began to issue(August, 1861) fore- 

 casts of coming weather. This rapid progress drew public 

 attention to the subject and, but for the want of funds, this 

 country would (as it so often has done) have gone ahead of its 

 own Government, and again by private enterprise been first 

 of any country in the world to produce a daily telegraphic 

 weather map. We should, if possible, have given the 

 names of those who promoted the company which desired 

 to do this, but we have only the prospectus and the map 

 for 5th August, 1 86 1, and it bears no name. The scheme 

 was extremely ingenious, and the map could have been 

 issued in London within three hours of the observations 

 being taken in any part of the British Isles. The map 

 was about twenty inches by fifteen inches, and contained 

 records from sixty-two stations well distributed from 

 Penzance to Nairn, and from Galway to Yarmouth. The 

 map was to be printed from an ordinary press, the out- 

 line names of stations, etc., being on a large block, with an 

 octagonal hole for each station, through which hole the 

 appropriate symbol was passed, and when all had been put 

 in position, the map was ready for printing. The symbols 

 were very simple, three varieties of outline showed whether 

 the barometer was rising, stationary or falling, the letter C 

 and four varieties of arrows showed the force of the wind, 

 while its direction was shown by that of the arrows, and 

 five systems of ground (dots, rings, etc.), showed whether 

 the sky was clear, partly cloudy, overcast, showery, or con- 

 tinuously rainy. Some one must have lost heavily, for all 

 the necessary instruments were made by Negretti and 

 Zambra, verified by Mr. Glaisher, and conveyed to their 

 destinations, the map and symbols were prepared and 

 engraved, but the funds for the issue of the Daily Weather 

 Map and Journal were not obtained. Admiral Fitz Roy 

 would not (or was not allowed to) help, and so the scheme 

 fell through, and England which had been the first to 

 produce one was left without a daily weather map for 



