268 PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



the Rocky Mountains and move eastward, observers had been secured 

 at Omaha, Cheyenne, Sherman, and Salt Lake City. * * * * 



"The location of the observatory in the smoke-saturated atmos- 

 phere of Cincinnati had been for some time recognized as unfavorable 

 for astronomical observations, and efforts were made to secure a more 

 suitable position for it. While this was going on there could be but 

 little heart in such measures as might be proposed for permanent im- 

 provements in the building or the fixed apparatus. It therefore seemed 

 evident that the remaining time spent upon Mount Adams could be best 

 improved by paying special attention to meteorology. An hourly record 

 was begun of all important atmospheric phenomena. Monthly reports 

 of meteorological observations were received from observers in other 

 cities. The interest of the Chamber of Commerce was engaged in the 

 organization of a system of daily weather-reports and storm-predictions; 

 the gratuitous co-operation of experienced observers was tendered ; and 

 the use of the Western Union telegraph lines was offered at a nominal 

 price. The daily 'Weather Bulletin' of the Cincinnati Observatory was 

 issued first in manuscript form, for the use of the Chamber of Com- 

 merce, and a week later in print, as an independent publication. It 

 was supported for three months by the Chamber of Commerce, then 

 passed into the hands of the observatory. Finally, the independent pub- 

 lication was discontinued, and the bulletin only appeared under the 

 same title in the morning papers. Subsequently, the publication, by a 

 manifold process, of a daily weather-chart was undertaken, which, in 

 consequence of the observatory's lack of means, was kept up at the 

 expense of the Cincinnati office of the Western Union Telegraph Com- 

 pany. The National Board of Trade meeting at Richmond, Virginia, 

 united in a memorial to Congress, the fruit of which, with other pro- 

 ceedings of a similar character, among which was Professor Lapham's 

 memorial asking for the institution of signals for Milwaukee and Lake 

 Michigan, was the passage of a joint resolution authorizing the Secre- 

 tary of War to provide for taking meteorological observations at mili- 

 tary posts in the interior of the continent, and on the lakes and sea- 

 coasts, for the purpose of giving warning of the approach and probable 

 force of storms. 



"The superintendency of these observations, or the 'Weather Bu- 

 reau,' was put in the charge of General Albert J. Myer, Chief of the 

 Army Signal Service, who appointed Professor Abbe his assistant, or 

 meteorologist." 



It is apparent from this brief account that Professor Al^be was 

 primarily imbued with the purpose not only to extend the field 

 of scientific meteorology, but to apply that knowledge to the 

 "prediction of storms and the wants of the citizen." The joint 



