692 



STOKM-SIGNALS. 



Service bulletin, and which actually swept the 

 Lakes as anticipated. At the same time, several ves- 

 sels, which sailed from port regardless of the bulletin, 

 encountered the storm, and two of them were lost. 

 In making any estimate of the work done and good 

 already accomplished by this service, it should be 

 borne in mind that the observers who do the actual 

 work were put on duty after a hurried course of 

 study, and without, in many cases, any previous 

 knowledge of even ordinary military duty. No simi- 

 lar body of men has ever been raised, organized, and 

 equipped. During the sixty days from November 

 1 to December 31, 1870, it has been clearly proved 

 that men so raised and instructed could make the 

 proper observations, and that, once made, these ob- 

 servations could be transmitted regularly and rapidly, 

 three times daily, to the central points, and thence 

 distributed promptly. This of itself was success 

 enough, but, in addition to this, a tri-dnily bulletin has 

 been posted at several public places in every impor- 

 tant city in the Union ; weather maps, similar to those 

 you saw in our office, put up in every Chamber of 

 Commerce and Board of Trade now in the same 

 cities, by which the movements of the atmosphere 

 could be clearly traced ; and, in addition to all this, 

 the reports which are made synchronously are pub- 

 lished synchronously throughout the country, thus far 

 excelling, in point of circulation, the English reports, 

 which have been the result of ten years' experiment. 

 In England these reports are published once each 

 day in the London Times, and reach a few thousand 

 people, while ours are printed in several hundred 

 newspapers, and are seen and read by hundreds of 

 thousands. On the first of January the manifold 

 map was commenced, and will be issued daily in all 

 the large cities as soon as we get a sufficient number 

 from the printer. 



The next great work attempted by the Bu- 

 reau will be to provide for the exhibition of 

 storm-signals at points on the Lakes and along 

 the coast. This will require more liberal ap- 

 propriations from Congress, which will doubt- 

 less be readily made, now that the usefulness 

 of the system has been well proved. The 

 Chamber of Commerce of New York has al- 

 ready initiated a movement to raise funds to 

 cooperate with the Government ; and similar 

 bodies will probably follow the example 

 throughout the country. 



Hon. Thomas B. Butler, Chief Justice of Con- 

 necticut, has made a valuable and interesting 

 contribution to meteorological science, in his 

 work entitled "The Atmospheric System 

 Developed." It contains a large amount of 

 original matter set forth lucidly, and forming 

 altogether a theory of great strength. It is 

 especially adapted for practical use by farmers 

 and others whose prosperity may depend on 

 accurate daily prognostications of the weather. 

 Judge Butler assumes that the popular notion 

 'of meteorologists, that atmospheric phenomena 

 are the result of mechanical commotions in a 

 sort of aerial ocean by the action of the sun's 

 rays in heating the earth and lower atmos- 

 phere, and causing the latter to rise is incor- 

 rect. He lays down three propositions, which 

 he sustains by masses of facts : 



" 1. That the normal state of the atmosphere 

 in the temperate zones is calm, fair weather. 



" 2. That the changes from that state, and all 

 the states and changes constituting the weath- 

 er, are produced by the passage of successive 



organizations commonly called storms, but 

 which, for reasons stated in the text, he terms 

 ' conditions.' 



" 3. That the conditions result from the oper- 

 ation of a great, central, permanent organiza- 

 tion, and originate in it, or in an atmospheric 

 current called the counter, or upper trade, 

 which is produced by and sent forth from that 

 central organization, out over the temperate 

 zones." 



He then goes on to show that there are seven 

 alternating and changing states of the atmos- 

 phere, and describes them and illustrates the 

 manner in which they are produced, by a his- 

 tory of two passing conditions, one a summer 

 belt of showers, and the other an autumn 

 southeast storm. He enlarges on the fact that 

 the atmosphere consists of strata or "stories," 

 and that these are constituted by the interpo 

 sition of the equatorial current or upper trade, 

 proceeding from what he calls the central con- 

 dition, and that the clouds of the different sto- 

 ries differ in function as well as in form. He 

 analyzes and classifies the conditions, and tells 

 in what localities one or other of them is gen- 

 erally to bo found. He shows how each one 

 of the diverse systems has its focal path, and 

 that these paths change their location with the 

 seasons ; and that the climatology of the coun- ' 

 try, and all its varying characteristics, result 

 from such changes. That part of his book he 

 claims to contain the key for the explanation 

 of every climatological fact peculiar to any sec- 

 tion of this continent. A considerable portion 

 of the work is devoted to the unfolding and 

 illustration of rules for forecasting the weather, 

 representing tests confirmed by the general 

 observation and experience of the author for 

 half a century. 



It has been very recently said, that meteor- 

 ology, unlike her sister sciences, has made no 

 advance. The most hasty review of what has 

 been done in determining the laws of storms, 

 and premonishing society of their approach, 

 establishes the fact that there is a scientific 

 basis for the operations of the Signal Service. 



A long series of observations has enabled 

 meteorologists to reach some perfectly well- 

 defined and unchallenged conclusions. Among 

 these are the following : 



In the United States, a large number of 

 storms, which come in from the Gulf of Mex- 

 ico, pursue the track of the Mississippi River, 

 and ascend its tributaries, until they reach the 

 States bordering on the 'Great Lakes. The 

 moisture from the lakes always exerts an at- 

 tractive influence upon the storm, causing it, 

 from a distance, to deviate from its course and 

 move toward the lakes. 



The storms which strike upon the Pacific 

 coast of the country, following the impulse 

 they receive from the great band of westerly 

 wind, overleap the Bocky Mountains, cross 

 the plains, and sweep eastward, often causing 

 great destruction of property on the lakes and 

 in the New-England States or Canada. 



