140 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



the first works of the Smithsonian Institution was to arrange a 

 system of meteorological observations at various points in the 

 country. The commencement of work at the institution chanced 

 to be coeval with the extensive application of the electric telegraph. 

 In 1874, Henry called the attention of the Board of Regents to the 

 facilities which lines of telegraph would afford for warning ob- 

 servers to be on the watch for the approach of a storm. As a part 

 of the system of meteorology, the telegraph was to be employed 

 in the investigation of atmospheric phenomena. The advantage 

 to agriculture and commerce to be derived from a knowledge of 

 the approach of a storm was recommended as a subject deserving 

 the attention of the Government. About 1850 a plan of mapping 

 the weather was instituted. A few now living may remember the 

 large maps of the country suspended in the entrance of the Institu- 

 tution, on which the state of the weather in different regions was 

 indicated by movable signs. This system continued until 1861, 

 when the breaking out of the Civil War prevented its further con- 

 tinuance. 



After the close of the war a renewal of the system was proposed 

 and some effort made for the attainment of this object. But 

 with this, as with every other enterprise, Professor Henry would 

 never go on with it after anyone else was found ready to take it up. 

 In 1869 Professor Abbe commenced the issue of regular weather 

 bulletins from the Cincinnati Observatory, showing the state of 

 the weather at a number of telegraphic stations, followed by a 

 brief forecast of the weather which would probably be experienced 

 at Cincinnati during the next twenty-four hours. About the 

 same time provision was made by Congress for a national system 

 under the direction of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army. This 

 received the cordial support of Professor Henry, who gave every 

 facility at the disposal of the Institution to General Myer for the 

 completion of the organization, and, indeed, turned over the 

 whole practical part of the subject to him. 



Among the services of Professor Henry outside of the field of 

 pure science and of the administration of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion the first place is due to those rendered in connection with the 



