SIGCUHNEY. 



519 



central office, and the dissemination thence of ' signals displayed. In general, two hours, or two 

 vreather-predictions and signals that gave public i aud a half suffice for the whole work of observing, 

 warning of storms and daily weather-changes; it is j predicting, and disseminating. Besides the tri-daily 

 this work that has made the Signal Service widely map, General Myer instituted the weekly weather- 

 known throughout the civilized world. The irn- chronicle, the monthly weather-review, the tri-daily 

 portance and possibility of weather-predictions by bulletin of observations, and the international bulle- 

 nieaus of the telegraph liad been foreseen from the tin of simultaneous observations taken throughout 

 VfliT first success of Prof. Morse on the liuo between [ the world, accompanied by a daily map of the weather 

 Washington and Baltimore in May, 1884 ; reports i over the entire northern hemisphere, on the land and 

 had been collected and maps sent out daily by Piof. | sea. After his death, August 24, 1880, a short in- 

 Henry at the Smithsonian Institution in 1854. 



at the Smithsonian Institution in 

 European governments had then taken up the work 

 nnd issued storm-warnings in Holland, Francs, and 

 England. Af fer peace hail been restored in the United 

 S ates Prof. C. A;>be, during 1863-69, had organized a. 

 system of reports and predictions for the benefit of 

 the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, and, based 

 un.Mi his succass, in the latter year Prof. Lapfaam, of 

 Milwaukee, had caused memorials for a general 

 r I'ional system to ba endorsed by all Chambers of 

 Commerce and Boards of Trade, which woro theu 

 presented to Congress with a proposed bill by Gen- 

 eral H. E. Paine. As soon as the matter had been 

 referred to tho propsr committee, Genaral Myer ap- 

 peared before it and explained convincingly tha 

 appropriateness of putting the work of weather-pre- 

 dictions and storm-signals in the hands of the Signal 

 Service, which was officially done in February, 1870. 

 The first bulletin of observations was issued by telo- 

 graph, Nov. 8, 1870, and occasional prediction * v:o 

 afterward made, it is said, by Prof. lupliam a~id 

 General Myer, but systematic tri-daily w,-a her-pre- 

 dictions began to be maile by the presaut writer, 

 February 12, 1871, and have continuod unbroken 

 from that day forward, excepting only that oa July 

 1, 1888, reports and predictions began to bo mad a 

 twice instead of thrice daily. The scops of the work 

 and duties of tin Signal Service was at first confined to 

 storms and floods, but has been successively extended 

 to cover every important feature of the weather that 

 can aff.;ct hum in industry, and it would ba belittling 

 its work to say, as has been said, that the agricult- 

 ural interests receive tha greatest benefits from it. 

 Neither is its usefulness confinsd to the United 

 States, since it exchanges reports by telegraph with 

 Canada and the West Indies, and by mail with every 

 civilized nation. The service has not merely a 

 practical financial field of usafn'new, but has also 

 done gor>d servica in educiting the people to a truer 

 appreciation of science and the laws of nature. It 

 has had to combat wi.h the prejudices of the 

 ignorant, wh i clang to the predictions of almanacs, 

 astrologers, siin -spot men, and sensationalists like 

 Wig^im ; there is every evidence that at the present 

 time the people look to the weather-signals, the 

 weather-predictions, the weather-maps, the clouds, 

 the barometer, when tiiey wish to foresee thu 



terregnuin occurred during which Adjutant-General 

 R. J. Drum was acting chief, and Brigadier-General 

 W. B. Hazen was then appointed Chief Signal Officer. 

 During the hitter's administration much attention 

 was given to the enlistment of a belter class of ob- 

 servers ; to the introduction of civilian scientific ex- 

 perts ; the improvement of instruments aud of their 

 exposures ; the general inspection of the stations ; 

 the observation of atmospheric electricity ; co-opeia- 

 tion in international polar meteorological research ; 

 the introduction of uniform standard time ; in- 

 struction in meteorology; the regulation of the 

 finances of tho sen-ice ; the utilization of the hom- 

 ing-pigeon for military purposes; the initiation of 

 cold wave signals, and of weather crop-bulletins. 



During General Hazeu's sickness, and after hia 

 death, January 16, 1887, General A. \V. Greely, 

 who had returned from his Arctic expedition, vaa 

 temporarily in charge, and on March 3, 1887, waa 

 confirmed as Chief Signal Officer. His administra- 

 tion has thus far been signalized by remarkable en- 

 ergy in reducing unnecessary expenses, by his advo- 

 cacy of at least a partial civilian organization under 

 civil service rules, aud by the securing of a new, 

 convenient, and commodious building for the offico 

 iu Washington in place of the disreputable, incon- 

 venient houses Lithcrto rented for that purpose. 



Notwithstanding the general success of the Weath- 

 er Bureau as conducted by tho Chief Signal Office]-, 

 there has been a long struggle over the question as 

 to whether it would not be more appropriate as a 

 civilian rather than a military organization : the 

 general argument being that the young men who 

 have enlisted as privates in the signal corps, expect- 

 ing to devote themselves therein to meteorology, 

 have been intellectually and socially too far above 

 those ordinarily enlisting as privates in the arniy to 

 justify holding them at the same rank ; and again, 

 that the work done is a practical and beneficent ap- 

 plication of science, such that men who have do- 

 voted themselves to the study of science should bo 

 brought into the signal service more freely than is 

 practicable so long as the strictly military organiza- 

 tion is maintained. As the outcome of this long 

 agitation of the subject the sundry civil appropria- 

 tion bill, signed by Pros. Cleveland, Oct. 4, 1888, en- 

 acted that a very large proportion of those who have 

 hitherto been carried on the rolls as privates aud 

 sergeants shall receive civilian appointments, a 

 change which has immediately resulted in infusing 

 a new spirit of ambition among those who have for 

 so many years given their days and nights to the 

 work of a service that is really an applied science, 

 and not necessarily of a military nature. A further 



weathnr, and have rid themselves of most of the su- 

 pers'.iti'Mu that were formarly in vogue among the 

 tut. Probably the most important feature of 

 the service' has been the remarkable promptness and 

 rapidity with which it lays b3fore the public its re- 

 ports and predictions. A series of observations is 

 made, for instance, as formerly, at 11.00 or 11.35 P.M., 



Washington time, simultaneously throughout the J step is still urged by many members of Congress by 

 country ; all necessary telegraph wires are put at the | which the Signal Office will remain as formerly a 

 disposition of the service for 20 or 30 minutes until military branch of the army, while the Weather Bu- 

 the<e observations are collected at Washington, they reau will become a bureau of the proposed Depart- 

 having msantime been also " dropped " at numerous ment of Industry, Commerce, and Agriculture, 

 other stations on thair way. Being translated and (- *) 



put upon a map as soon as received, this work is SIGOURNEY, LYDIA HrNTLET (1791-1865), wus a 

 finished before midnight, and before 1 A.M. all pro- poet whose writings, by theu- religions tone and do- 

 dictions, signals, and other orders have issued to mestic sentiment, obtained an extensive but fleeting 

 the obiervera and to the Associated Press. By day- popularity. She was the daughter of Ezekiel Hunt- 

 liglik of tho next morning the public everywhere has ley, a veteran of the Revolution, and was born at 

 <l tin- morning paper with the prediction*, or Norwich, Conn., Sept. 1, 1791. She was well edu- 

 noted tho storm-signals flying, or the cold-wave \ cated, and at the age of nineteen began to teach. In 



