SIGNAL SERVICE. 



707 



two years, and married the wife who survives 

 him. In 1801 he was commissioned a briga- 

 dier-general and joined the right wing of the 

 Army of tlio Potomac. At Kernstown and 

 Port 1 1 1- public he carne nearer defeating Gen- 

 eral " Stonewall " Jackson than any other Fed- 

 i-ral general ever did. He resigned his com- 

 mi.vMon in 1803 and settled in Wisconsin, but 

 soon after removed to Carrollton, Missouri, 

 \\IHTO he resumed the practice of his profes- 

 sion, and served as a Kailroad Commissioner. 

 In 1874 he represented Carroll County in the 

 Legislature, and in January, 1879, he was elect- 

 ed liy the Legislature to serve out the nnexpircd 

 term (six weeks) of the deceased Senator Bogg. 

 On his return he was tendered a reception at 

 Jefferson City, which took place in the hall 

 of the House of Representatives. He made a 

 lengthy and vtry successful address. With the 

 exception of an occasional lecture or address to 

 assemblages of private citizens, he afterward 

 remained in retirement. 



SIGNAL SERVICE, METEOROLOGICAL DI- 

 VISION OF THE UNITED STATES. In the field, 

 in time of war, the Signal Service of the 

 United States Army is equipped to maintain 

 communication by signals, by telegraph, or by 

 semaphores between different portions of an 

 army or armies, or between armies and fleets. 

 In war or peace it communicates to proper au- 

 thority information of danger of any descrip- 

 tion. The field-telegraph trains of the Signal 

 Service are organized for use with armies. They 

 are managed by soldiers who are drilled to 

 march with, manoeuvre, work, and protect them. 

 The train carries light or field telegraph lines, 

 which can be very quickly erected or run out 

 at the rate of two or three miles per hour. They 

 can be put in use for any distance, and be as 

 rapidly taken down, repacked, and marched off 

 with the detachment to be used elsewhere. 



The Signal Service also transmits intelligence 

 in reference to storms or approaching weather- 

 changes by the display of signals of warnings 

 and by reports posted in the different cities 

 and ports of the United States. Maps showing 

 the state of the weather over the United States 

 are exhibited at Board of Trade rooms, Cham- 

 bers of Commerce, and other places of public 

 resort. Bulletins of data for all the stations 

 are also prominently displayed and distributed 

 without expense to the leading newspapers. 



Signal-stations are also established in con- 

 nection with the life-saving stations. These 

 stations are connected by telegraph, and, in 

 addition to displaying storm-warning signals 

 and making the usual meteorological reports, 

 make special reports upon the temperature of 

 the water, tempests at sea, the sea-swells, etc. 

 They also summon assistance to vessels in dis- 

 tress from the nearest life-saving stations or 

 from the nearest port. 



Stations for river-reports, to give notice of 

 the conditions of the rivers affecting navigation 

 and floods, are also established on the principal 

 interior rivers and their tributaries. 



The officers and men of the Signal Service 

 are instructed for the different branches of the 

 service at Fort W hippie, Virginia, and at the 

 Central Office in Washington, D. C. They are 

 taught signaling in all its branches, telegraphy, 

 the use of the various meteorological instru- 

 ments, the modes of observing, and the forms 

 and duties required at stations of observation ; 

 the force is also drilled with arms, with the 

 field-telegraph train, the construction of per- 

 manent telegraph lines, and in the usual duties 

 of soldiers. For the duties of the observation 

 of storms and for the display of warning sig- 

 nals, all stations communicate directly with the 

 Signal Office in Washington over telegraphic 

 circuits arranged with the different telegraph 

 companies, and connecting with the office at 

 fixed hours, each day and night. Each station 

 is equipped with the following instruments: 

 barometer, thermometer, maximum thermom- 

 eter, minimum thermometer, anemometer with 

 electrical attachment and self-registering appa- 

 ratus, hygrometer, wind-vane, rain-gauge, and, 

 at stations located on rivers, lakes, or seacoasts, 

 thermometers for taking the temperature of 

 water at different depths. 



The readings of these instruments, made three 

 times a day at fixed hours, are reported to the 

 central office in cipher. 



These reports from the stations of observa- 

 tion extending over territory reaching from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, and from 

 the capes of Florida into British America, are 

 not unfrequently concentrated at the central 

 office in the space of forty-five minutes. The 

 stations at which cautionary signals are dis- 

 played are equipped with flags and apparatus 

 for exhibiting the cautionary day or night sig- 

 nals, and also for communicating with vessels 

 of any nationality. 



The meteorological division of the United 

 States Signal Service was established in 1870. 

 It was the natural outgrowth of the service of 

 the Signal Corps during the ten preceding years, 

 and was an additional duty imposed upon it. 

 The progress of modern inquiry into the changes 

 taking place in the weather, and especially into 

 the phenomena of storms, had for many years 

 previous strengthened the conviction that they 

 are not capricious, but follow certain laws. To 

 provide, therefore, for taking meteorological 

 observations, with a view to " giving notice by 

 telegraph and signals of the approach and force 

 of storms," was the end originally contemplated 

 by the joint resolution of Congress, which passed 

 February 9th of that year, authorizing the Sec- 

 retary of War to carry this scheme into effect. 

 The organization of a meteorological bureau 

 adequate to the investigation of American 

 storms, and to their preannouncement along 

 the northern lakes and the seacoast, was, un- 

 der the auspices of the War Department, im- 

 mediately intrusted to the Chief Signal Offi- 

 cer of the Army, Brigadier-General Albert J. 

 Myer; and the division thus created in his of- 

 fice was designated as the " Division of Tele- 



