382 



NATURE 



\Augiist zi, 1879 



barometers of the best make have, since the date of the 

 last annual report, been prepared and located, as stand- 

 ards, at the ports of New York and San Francisco. 



" These barometers have been publicly located to afford 

 means for comparison of the ships' barometers of the 

 shipping of all nations. The instruments, while carefully 

 guarded, are easily accessible. Public notice is given of 

 the location, and a sergeant of the Signal Corps attends 

 daily to give information and to take charge of any 

 ship's barometer which may be brought for comparison 

 (Paper 48). 



" The standard barometer for the use of shipping in the 

 Atlantic Ocean is located at the Maritime Exchange, in 

 New York City ; the standard barometer for the use of 

 shipping in the Pacific Ocean is located at the Merchants' 

 Exchange, in the city of San Francisco. 



" The officers of the Signal Service at the different cities 

 and ports of the United States and upon the sea-coast 

 offer every facility and aid in their power to the vessels of 

 any nation. 



" With the plans for charting now adopted at this office, 

 and with the reports now received here, it appears that 

 the meteoric changes occurring over a great portion of the 

 continents north of the equator can be charted with an 

 accuracy sufficient to permit careful and valuable study. 

 This charting to be of the best attainable value, must be 

 supplemented from the records of observations had on the 

 seas. A ship at sea becomes one of the best of stations 

 for a simultaneous system. The value of the record is 

 enhanced by the change of the ship's location occurring 

 within each period of twenty-four hours. There is no sea- 

 going vessel but which carries human life, and each ought 

 to carry by compulsion, if need be, meteorological instru- 

 ments. The smallest craft, in caring for its own safety, 

 may use them enough to add to the value of the most 

 extensive record. There is no nation without interest in 

 the work proposed to be based upon exchanged simul- 

 taneous reports, and none has hitherto hesitated, when 

 the subject has been properly presented, to aid in a duty 

 which, so easily done as to require very little effort on the 

 part of any one person, has for its object a good to man- 

 kind. The work cannot, from its nature, be for the 

 selfish good of any section. 



"A number of the great steamship companies, foreign 

 and domestic, operating the principal commercial sea- 

 routes, have promised and will give their powerful in- 

 lluence and aid. 



"The office has the co-operation of the Pacific Mail 

 Steamship Company, through its agents, Williams, Blan- 

 chard and Co. ; the White Star Line, through its agents, 

 Ismay, Irarie and Co., Liverpool, and R. J. Curtis, New 

 York ; the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company, 

 through its president, George H. Bradbury; the North 

 German Lloyd, through its agents, A. Schumacher and 

 Co.; the American Steamship Company, through its 

 president, H. D. Welsh ; the Red Star Line, through its 

 president, James A. Wright, and the Allan Line, through 

 its agents, A. Schumacher and Co. 



" The United States bear, in the cases of all maritime 

 observers co-operating in this system, all expenses for 

 forms, postages, &c., when so desired, and not infre- 

 quently, and, when necessary, loan the required instru- 

 ments. 



"The number of observations made daily on separate 

 vessels at sea is 100 (Paper 13). 



" Research has already gone far enough to indicate the 

 paths by which, if it cannot be directly predicted, it can 

 at least be studied, to learn what sequences to follow 

 conditions reported on or near the eastern coast of Asia, 

 or on the Pacific, will be found on our own western coasts. 

 " Similar studies will have reference to our own southern 

 and eastern coasts, and to the western coasts of the 

 European continent. The time cannot be far distant 

 when vessels leaving any Atlantic port may be informed 



whether any notable disturbance exists at sea and where 

 it is likely to threaten the voyage. 



" The estabhshment of permanent ocean stations in lines 

 traversing the oceans over or near the telegraphic cables, 

 and in telegraphic communication with either continent, 

 is not considered impracticable, and has been referred to 

 in a preceding report. 



"There is reason to hope that a progress has been 

 made which will eliminate from the study of practical 

 international meteorology some of the difficulties hitherto 

 encountered. 



" There are grounds to hope also that the atmospheric 



conditions and changes of condition can be charted with 



sufficient accuracy over any extent of the earth's surface. 



" If the hope has fruition, meteorological barriers will, 



as against study, practically cease to exist. 



"A copy of the International Bulletin herewith (Paper 

 27) exhibits the character of the international reports, 

 and that of the information had from each station. The 

 chart accompanying this bulletin shows as nearly as 

 practicable the location of the stations, and foreshadows 

 the duties and reports had from them will make prac- 

 ticable. The number of stations reporting increases. 



" While the stations are crowded in some localities, each 

 is useful — each serving to check the work of the other, 

 and each aiding to close the gaps the failure of other 

 stations might sometimes cause. The work is not likely 

 to be abandoned by those in the different countries who 

 have taken part in establishing it, and who share its 

 benefits. If it serve no other purpose than to maintain, 

 as it does, the pleasant co-operation of those charged 

 with the meteorological duties of the different countries, 

 it would be of value. It is hoped that by systems of ob- 

 servations thus extensive, generalisations may be had to 

 permit the announcement of meteoric changes for periods 

 longer in advance than have been hitherto practicable. 



" The average number of daily simultaneous observa- 

 tions now made in foreign countries is 293. The total 

 number of stations on land and on vessels at sea from 

 ■which reports are entered in the bulletin regularly is 557. 

 The co-operation of the different nations secured by this 

 plan of exchange, as above described, renders the addi- 

 tional cost to the United States of the grand system of 

 reports it makes possible but little more than that of the 

 cost of the preparation, Taper, and binding of the In- 

 ternational Bulletin and the accompanying charts, a 

 cost which would have to be met in great part for the 

 proper preservation of the records themselves even if the , 

 bulletins were not distributed. , j 



" The Chief Signal Officer is gratified to announce in ' 

 this report that the work of the collection of the reports 

 of international simultaneous observations, carried on in 

 foreign countries in co-operation with the United States, 

 as well as within the territories of the United States and 

 upon the seas thus above referred to, has in the jear 

 just passed so far progressed as to have attained one 

 principal result for which it was set on foot. On July i, 

 1878, it became possible for the first time in the history 

 of this office to commence the issue, on that date, of a 

 daily international weather map, charted daily and issued 

 daily, each chart based upon the data appearing upon the 

 International Bulletin of simultaneous reports of similar 

 date. The charting extends around the world, and 

 embraces for its area the whole northern hemisphere. 



"The daily issue of a chart of this kind, thus daily 

 issued for the first time by the United States, is without 

 a precedent in history. It exhibits the co-operation, for 

 for a single purpose, of the civilised powers of the world 

 north of the equator. 



" The studies such charts make possible, the improve- 

 ment which will come as the work progresses and the 

 area of the chart is better filled with reports of observa- 

 tions carefully elaborated, are fully appreciated by scien 

 tific men. The questions as to the translations of storms 



