678 



OBSERVATORIES AND INSTRUMENTS. 



mean temperature, and amount of rain, for 

 each month, in different States, and also, for 

 purposes of comparison, the mean temperature 

 and amount of rain for a series of five years, 

 grouped by -States (see sucli table in this CYCLO- 

 p-KoiA, 18G4), together with tables of impor- 

 tant atmospheric changes, and notices of auro- 

 ras,* meteors, etc. This publication has been 

 received with much favor both by agricultur- 

 ists and by meteorological observers. Mean- 

 while, however, not only has the collection of 

 the original data from the various observing 

 stations, as before intimated, been interfered 

 with since the beginning of the late war, but 

 also the reduction and issuing in systematic 

 form of much of the materials that have been 

 received ; though it is hoped that both these 

 parts of the work of the Institution may soon 

 be resumed, through a renewal of the appro- 

 priations for these objects which have been now 

 for four years suspended. 



The second volume of the results of meteo- 

 rological observations made under the direc- 

 tion of the Institution and of the Patent Office, 

 for the six years from 1854 to 1859, inclusive, 

 having been for some time delayed in press, it 

 was at length decided to issue the part already 

 printed ; and this, forming a quarto volume of 

 more than 500 pages, was bound and distribu- 

 ted in 1864. The volume is in two parts the 

 first half, generalizing the observations of peri- 

 odical phenomena (1851-'59) in certain species 

 of plants and animals, with tables of the open- 

 ing and closing of lakes, rivers, canals, and 

 harbors, having been prepared by Dr. F. B. 

 Hough, of Albany; and the second half, occu- 

 pied with materials respecting three storms in 

 1859, by Prof. J. H. Coffin, of Lafayette Col- 

 lege, Pa. This volume, and that previously 

 published on meteorological phenomena gener- 

 ally of the same period, together make nearly 

 2,000 pages; and these, along with nearly 200 

 pages quarto of reductions for the years 1855- 

 '59, inclusive, published as an appendix to the 

 " Statistical Report of the Sickness and Mor- 

 tality in the Army of the United States," con- 

 stitute a valuable body of materials for the in- 

 vestigation of meteorological problems. Among 

 other meteorological publications of the Insti- 

 tution, may be named the work of Prof. Cof- 

 fin on the Winds of the Northern Hemisphere; 

 that of Prof. Loomis on a great storm which 

 pervaded both America and Europe; Prof. 

 Caswell's reduced observations of 28 years at 

 Providence, R. I., and Dr. Smith's of 20 years 

 in Arkansas ; besides Meech on the Heat and 

 Light of the Sun, Olmstead and Force on Au- 

 roras, etc. 



The Secretary, after alluding to the receipt 

 of meteorological bulletins from Paris and 

 from Palermo, and to a plan of observations 

 proposed in the latter similar to that adopted 

 previous to the war by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution namely, that of furnishing the most 

 important telegraphic stations with meteorolog- 

 ical instruments, and instructing the telegraph- 



ists in the process of making observations, re- 

 marks that a thoroughly organized system of 

 this kind, over the whole United States, with 

 a series of directions for predicting the weath- 

 er at a given place from a knowledge of the 

 condition of the atmosphere at distant points, 

 would be of vast importance to the maritime 

 and agricultural interests of the country, par- 

 ticularly along the Atlantic seaboard. An im- 

 portant aid to this end is already secured in the 

 action of the North American Telegraphic As- 

 sociation, which gives the free use of all its 

 lines for the scientific objects of the Institution. 

 The lines of the Association extend to all parts 

 of the United States and Canada, including the 

 overland line to San Francisco; and the com- 

 panies on the Pacific coast have granted like 

 privileges. 



In the unfortunate fire by which, on the 24th. 

 of January, 1865, the Smithsonian Institution 

 buildings and their contents were in part de- 

 stroyed, the meteorological department sus- 

 tained a severe loss. Still, though the fire spread 

 rapidly through the three rooms in which the 

 meteorological records were kept, the larger 

 portion of the contents of these rooms was 

 nevertheless saved. As parts of the loss occa- 

 sioned by this fire to the Institution, should be 

 named the contents of the Secretary's office, 

 embracing considerable collections of papers, 

 official, scientific, and miscellaneous; a large 

 amount of apparatus, including the principal 

 instruments employed for meteorological ob- 

 servations at the Institution, and among which 

 was the self-registering apparatus of Dr. Small- 

 wood, of Montreal, for recording the direction 

 and velocity of the wind, as well as all the 

 records obtained by its use since the year 

 1858 ; while among the losses to other parties 

 were that of Mr. J. M. Stanley's portraits, 

 some 200 in number, of Mr. King's Indian por- 

 traits, of a copy in Carrara marble by John 

 Gott of the " Dying Gladiator," of two private 

 libraries, etc. The fire is believed to have orig- 

 inated in the heated air or sparks from a stove 

 in an upper room, which was temporarily 

 brought into use, and the pipe of which had 

 been by mistake inserted into a space resem- 

 bling a flue in the wall, and from which the 

 woodwork immediately beneath the slate roof 

 became ignited. The amount of loss to the In- 

 stitution, independent of damage to the build- 

 ing, and so far as it may be estimated in money, 

 has been stated at $20,000 ; that to individuals, 

 at $26,000. A list of the deficiencies caused by 

 the fire is to be published. 



Great Britain. Professor G. B. Airy, in 

 charge of the Royal Observatory, Green- 

 wich, has decided to resign to private ob- 

 servers the inviting subject of the observa- 

 tion of the sun's surface. From his recent re- 

 port, it appears that of late the first place has 

 been given to observations of the principal 

 fixed stars, and especially in consequence of 

 the recently discovered roving propensity of 

 that luminary to those of Sinus. Observa- 



