690 



STONE, COLLINS. 



STORM-SIGNALS. 



Decernoer 14, 1870. He was educated at 

 Princeton College, whence he graduated in 

 1815 ; studied law and theology, and subse- 

 quently went to the Sandwich Islands as a 

 missionary, returning in 1825. In 1828 he 

 published a journal of his residence there, 

 which passed through six editions in America, 

 and was republished in England. He received 

 the appointment of chaplain in the Navy in 

 1828, and made his first cruise to Brazil, Peru, 

 and other South American countries, on board 

 the Vincennes, in 1829-'30. Subsequently he 

 published an account of the cruise, which was 

 received with great favor, and went through 

 several editions both in this country and in 

 Great Britain. He also wrote a book on Eng- 

 lish and Irish society, which was published in 

 1834. He became editor of the Naval Maga- 

 zine in 1837, and subsequently acted as chap- 

 lain of several Navy -Yards. His last cruise 

 ended in 1862, after which he retired from 

 the service. He was a man of fine intellectual 

 culture, broad, generous spirit, and ardent in 

 his zeal and devotion to the cause of humanity. 



STONE, Eev. COLLINS, a Congregationalist 

 clergyman, and educator of the deaf and dumb, 

 born in Canton, Conn., in 1812; was killed 

 by a railroad accident in Hartford, Conn., De- 

 cember 23, 1870. He graduated at Yale Col- 

 lege in 1832, and in 1833 became teacher in 

 the American Asylum at Hartford. After a 

 period of nineteen years of faithful and effi- 

 cient service, he accepted in 1852 the position 

 of principal of the Ohio State Asylum for the 

 Deaf and Dumb, at Columbus. In 18G3 he was 

 offered the position of principal of the Ameri- 

 can Asylum at Hartford, the parent institution 

 for deaf-mute instruction in this country, and 

 accepted it. He studied theology with the 

 Rev. Dr. Hawes, of that city, and was ordained 

 to the ministry in 1853, while principal of the 

 Ohio institution. For a period of nearly forty 

 years he was untiring in his zeal and devotion 

 to that interesting department of education, 

 and was greatly beloved and respected, not 

 only by his pupils, but by his associates, and 

 all with whom he was brought in contact. 



STORM-SIGNALS. Until 1870 this coun- 

 try had no system of forecasting or signalling 

 storms. In England, France, and other parts 

 of Europe, this important branch of science 

 and useful knowledge had received the most 

 careful attention and the liberal patronage of 

 governments. In England, the art of fore- 

 telling the weather is brought to such per- 

 fection, that as high a proportion as seventy- 

 three per cent, of storm- warnings has proved 

 correct; and in France, in one year, no less 

 than ninety-four out of one hundred storms 

 were correctly signalled. At Hamburg, ac- 

 cording to the report of the North-German 

 Seewaste, twenty-eight out of thirty storm- 

 signals were verified. It is strange that in the 

 United States, where the commerce of the 

 lakes and the sea-coast is exposed to sudden 

 and very disastrous tempests, this life and 



property saving system had not been before 

 adopted. The extent of the country is BO 

 vast, that the severe and most destructive 

 storms which originate in the South and South- 

 west can be signalled for many hours before 

 they burst upon remote parts of the land, and 

 thus lake and ocean vessels may be warned 

 against leaving port till the danger is over. 

 The movement to establish a Government 

 Bureau for this purpose originated in the 

 West, and was suggested by the enormous 

 losses sustained by the commerce of the Great 

 Lakes in 1869, when 1,914 vessels were wrecked 

 or otherwise injured by storms, to the extent 

 in damages of over $4,000,000. General H. 

 E. Paine, Representative from Wisconsin, re- 

 sponding to the Western demand for greater 

 security to lake commerce, offered the follow- 

 ing resolution in Congress, early in 1870 : 



Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives of the United States of America in Congress as- 

 sembled, That the Secretary of War be, and he here- 

 by is, authorized and required to provide for taking 

 meteorological observations at the military stations 

 in the interior of the continent, and at other points 

 in the States and Territories of the United States, and 

 for giving notice on the Northern lakes and on the 

 sea-coast, by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, 

 of the approach and force of storms. 



This was promptly passed, and approved 

 by the President, February 9, 1870. Brevet 

 Brigadier-General Albert J. Myer, the chief 

 signal-officer of the Army, was intrusted with 

 the novel and difficult work of executing the 

 objects of the resolution. The enactment and 

 the appointment were received with great 

 favor throughout the United States, the Cham- 

 bers of Commerce in the Atlantic and West- 

 ern cities taking especial pride and interest 

 in the matter. General Myer asked for only 

 small appropriations $15,000 for the fiscal 

 year ending June 30, 1870, and $20,000 for 

 the next fiscal year, ending June 30, 1871. 

 Such economy as he contemplated was ren- 

 dered possible only by the fact that the obser- 

 vations were all (or nearly all) to be conducted 

 by army officers. The principal expense to 

 be met was for the purchase of instruments, 

 such as thermometers, barometers, hygrome- 

 ters, rain-gauges, and anemometers or wind- 

 gauges. These were speedily procured, the 

 army correspondents selected and installed, 

 and the work of reporting commenced. 



The ar-my stations from which reports are 

 daily received at Washington number about 

 thirty-six. Besides these, a return comes in 

 every day, when the lines are working through, 

 from Mount Washington, the highest point 

 of the White Mountains, the meteorological 

 service at the latter place being performed _by 

 a volunteer corps of two persons and assist- 

 ants from Dartmouth College, and one United 

 States observer-sergeant. They passed the en- 

 tire winter of 1870-'71 at that lofty, cold, and 

 windy elevation, in a substantial wooden hut, 

 living upon provisions supplied to them by tho 

 liberality of the friends of science in New 



