8 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



present daily returns from thirty-nine stations extending from 

 Plymouth to Glasgow and from Yarmouth to Holyhead." 



In 1851 came the Great Exhibition, and the exhibit of the 

 Electric Telegraph Company consisted of a large map on 

 which were daily indicated the direction of the wind and the 

 state of the weather at about thirty of their stations, and also 

 of daily reproductions by lithography which were sold at a 

 penny a copy. These were the first maps of current weather 

 ever issued, and notwithstanding that there are no isobars 

 and the barometer readings were not reduced to sea level 

 (although Mr. Glaisher had, in the tables supplied to the 

 Registrar General, adopted this excellent plan as early as 

 1849), the clean sharpness of the printing makes these maps 

 extremely interesting. Unfortunately their publication 

 ceased when, or slightly before, the Exhibition closed. The 

 issue extended from 8th August to i ith October, 185 1, with 

 the exception of Sundays. A few perfect copies of the entire 

 set have been preserved. 



Placing ourselves in imagination in the latter part of 

 1 85 1, we find nearly every part of the modern system sug- 

 gested, or in operation ; the circular theory of storms, their 

 easterly progression, their calm centre, isobars and the de- 

 pendence of wind force on their proximity (now called the 

 barometric gradient), the construction of weather m.aps from 

 synchronous observations on the same day, the prediction of 

 future based upon the knowledge of existing weather, and the 

 communication to ships of information gained upon land. 



Consequently though we should be the last to de- 

 preciate the work of Buijs Ballot, Le Verrier, Fitz Roy 

 and their successors, and though doubtless much of their 

 work was original with them, still there is no need now to 

 dwell much upon it. 



We believe that the first Government to take action 

 in the matter of collecting data by telegraph was that of 

 Holland, on the recommendation of Buijs Ballot, in or 

 about 1855, and that they very shortly followed this by 

 sending announcements of coming storms. 



France, at the suggestion of Le Verrier, organised an 

 analogous system in the same year. 



England came third, beoinninCT under Admiral Fitz 



