656 The Smithsonian Institution 



pamphlet of "Directions for Meteorological Observations,"^ 

 which was issued in 1850, and he was also invited to compile 

 " A Collection of Meteorological Tables," which was issued 

 in 1852. The latter, consisting, when first published, of only 

 2 1 2 pages, passed through four editions ^ under Professor 

 Guyot, the last of which, appearing in 1884, contained 748 

 pages. Although designed primarily for the meteorological 

 observers reporting to the Smithsonian Institution, the tables 

 obtained a much wider circulation and were extensively used 

 by a large number of meteorologists and physicists in Europe 

 and the United States. 



In 1847 Henry had recognized the value of the application 

 of the electric telegraph^ as " a ready means of warning the 

 more northern and eastern observers to be on the watch for 

 the first appearance of an advancing storm " ; * and a year 

 later he wrote, " As a part of the system of meteorology, it is 

 proposed to employ, as far as our funds will permit, the 

 magnetic telegraph in the investigation of atmospheric phe- 

 nomena," and then,^ "The advantage to agriculture and 

 commerce to be derived from a knowledge of the approach 

 of a storm, by means of the telegraph, has been frequently 

 referred to of late in the public journals."^ Realizing that 

 the time for action had arrived, Henry, in 1849, personally 

 requested the presidents of a number of telegraph companies 



1 Dana, James D., "Memoir of Arnold says: "In the Atlantic ports of the United 

 Guyot," Biographical Memoirs, National States, the approach of a gale when the 

 Academy of Sciences, Volume il, page 338. storm is yet on the Gulf of Mexico, or in the 



2 The second edition was issued in 1859. Southern or Western States, may be made 

 Concerning this volume Guyot wrote to known by means of the electric telegraph, 

 Henry in 1858 "that two-fifths of the pages which, will probably soon extend from Maine 

 of tables, representing 68,000 computed re- to the Mississippi." This is the first known 

 suits, were wholly new and were prepared published suggestion of the use of telegraphy 

 for the volume." Also, " It is essentially a for the transmission of meteorological infor- 

 work of patience, in doing which the idea mation, and is doubtless the source from 

 of saving much labor to others and facilitat- which Loomis obtained his idea, which, in 

 ing scientific research is the only encourag- turn, was passed on to Henry. 



ing element." Dana's Memoir, page 338. 4 "Smithsonian Report," 1846, page 25. 



3 In the American Journal of Science for 5 Ibidem, 1848, jjage 15. 

 September, 1846 (page 334), W. C. Redfield 6 Ibidem, 1848, page 16. 



