SIGNAL SERVICE. 



conspicuous places, they are also bulletined 

 f'>r popular inspection. In order that they 

 may reach the t-inninir populations, an arrange- 

 ment is effected with the Post - Office De- 

 partment, by which special " Farmers' Bulle- 

 tin.- " may he distributed at an early morning 

 hour of each day, except Sunday, along the 

 railroads radiating from the chief cities of the 

 I'nion. These "Farmers' Bulletins" contain 

 all the matter of the " midnight" report made 

 up in tho Washington office at 1 A. M. of each 

 day, which, when it reaches the outlying sta- 

 tions by telegraph, is printed before daylight, 

 and copies of it mailed to the rural postmasters 

 for many miles around, and by them displayed 

 in their offices. There are now nineteen cities 

 at which the Signal Service observers reprint 

 and circulate the telegraphic forecasts to 6,042 

 sub-centers among the agricultural communi- 

 ties while the reports are yet fresh and timely. 

 Each postmaster has the order of the Postmas- 

 ter-General to display the report as soon as 

 received in a frame furnished for the purpose, 

 and to report in writing to the Chief Signal 

 Officer the time of its receipt and display. 

 The intelligence of weather-changes, with pre- 

 dictions and other data useful to the farmer 

 in securing his crops or in other ways, it has 

 been found, on an average, reaches the different 

 railway stations, hamlets, and villages through- 

 out the United States in the forenoon. As 

 the predictions cover twenty-four hours, and 

 often hold good for twice that period, they 

 therefore reach the denser rural populations 

 twelve or fourteen hours before the period to 

 which they apply expires, and not unfrequently 

 a day and a half or more. 



To make the reports still more widely use- 

 ful to the agricultural interests, the Chief Sig- 

 nal Officer, by an arrangement between the 

 War Department and different railways, has 

 established a " Railway Weather Bulletin Ser- 

 vice." In this work 103 railway companies, 

 distributing daily 3,180 reports to as many rail- 

 way stations, are now without charge cooper- 

 ating. The midnight report, exhibiting the 

 " Synopsis and Indications," is telegraphed to 

 the railway companies, whose superintendents 

 are charged with seeing that copies of it are 

 bulletined and posted along their lines a few 

 hours after it emanates from the Washington 

 office. By this means large masses of the rural 

 populations, and residents of districts which 

 can not otherwise be reached in time, secure 

 the benefits of the Government weather service. 

 This system of distribution is in its incipiency, 

 but is capable of indefinite extension, and of 

 diffusing the desired weather-data to vast num- 

 bers of farmers in the interior centers. The 

 immense demand which has ever existed among 

 all classes for weather-forecasts is strikingly il- 

 lustrated by the fact, mentioned by the ''Penny 

 Post " (an old English paper) in 1833, that up 

 to that year the annual sale of " Moore's Al- 

 manack," the weather prognostics of which 

 were proverbially without any basis of scien- 



tific observations, still amounted to " a quarter 

 of a million copies." 



As many farmers, however, reside too far 

 from an. railway station or post-office to ob- 

 tain timely reports of storms and weather- 

 changes, General Mycr has for some time been 

 preparing for distribution at cost-price among 

 such a simple apparatus, which will serve evi-n 

 the uneducated as an indicator of coming 

 changes. This is the " WEATHER-CASE, or 

 FARMEH'S WEATHER-INDICATOR." This auto- 

 matically working instrument is of value in 

 enabling agriculturists to interpret whatever 

 official weather-intelligence reaches them, and 

 to determine for themselves in advance the 

 chief weather-changes, as well as to direct 

 their thoughts and study to those atmospheric 

 phenomena upon a knowledge of which their 

 craft must so much depend. Instructions and 

 rules for interpreting the instrumental varia- 

 tions will accompany the weather-case, and 

 thus practically extend the already immense 

 circle within which the reports are utilized. 



Preparing the " Synopsis and Indications." 

 From reading in the morning newspapers the 

 " Synopsis and Indications " for the day, no 

 one not initiated in the method of preparing 

 them would suspect the magnitude of the work 

 involved in their preparation. The study pre- 

 requisite for each of the tri-daily press reports 

 issued includes the draughting of eight graphic 

 charts exhibiting the multiform data furnished 

 by the simultaneous reports telegraphed from 

 all the stations. These charts are: (a.) A 

 chart of barometric pressures, temperatures, 

 and winds (wind-direction and velocity) at the 

 different stations, with the amount of clouds 

 and the kind and amount of precipitation at 

 each station. The isobars (or lines connecting 

 stations where the barometric pressure is the 

 same) are then drawn for every tenth of an 

 inch, as also are isothermal lines for every 

 10 of temperature ; while wind-directions are 

 marked by arrows and their hourly velocities 

 by numbers. (6.) A chart of relative humidities 

 at oil stations, with the character and amount 

 of the upper and lower clouds, which have 

 been well called " Nature's weather-guides." 

 On this are traced lines of equal relative hu- 

 midity over the country, showing the territo- 

 rial areas over which precipitation is likely to 

 ensue upon Hie reduction of temperature, or 

 where the clouds are likely to be dissipated by 

 a rise of temperature. As isothermal lines are 

 drawn on this chart, such deductions are fa- 

 cilitated, (c.) A chare of the various cloud- 

 conditions prevailing at the time over the 

 United States, with the " weather " at each 

 station depicted by symbols ; also the mini- 

 mum temperatureo and the maximum wind-ve- 

 locities. The cloud-areas each form of cloud 

 represented by a different symbol are out- 

 lined, and each one is distinguished. The ap- 

 pearance of the western sky at each station as 

 observed at sunset, which affords a strong in- 

 dication of the weather to be anticipated for 



