Meteorology 



657 



to allow the Smithsonian Institution "at a certain period of 

 the day, the use of their wires for the transmission of meteor- 

 ological intelligence."^ 



This request was favorably considered and thereafter, until 

 the beginning of the civil war, the system of daily telegraphic 

 weather reports thus inaugurated was continued. Such was 

 the beginning of the telegraphic weather service, and by means 

 of these reports predictions of coming storms, with all the 

 recognized advantages to the country at large, were made 

 possible.^ It is of this service that Cleveland Abbe has so 

 well said: "However frequently the idea may have been 

 suggested of utilizing our knowledge by the employment of 

 the electric telegraph, it is to Professor Henry and his assist- 

 ants in the Smithsonian Institution that the credit is due of 

 having first actually realized this suggestion."^ 



The next step was an important one, and in the annual 

 Report for 1850 Henry wrote: "For the better comprehen- 

 sion of the relative position of the several places of observa- 

 tion, now embraced in our system of meteorology, an outline 

 map of North America has been constructed, by Professor 

 Foreman. This map is intended also to be used for present- 

 ing the successive phases of the sky over the whole country, 

 at different points of time, as far as reported to us, and we 



1 " Smithsonian Report," 1849, P^ge 15. 



2 1 am not unmindful of the fact (for 

 which I am indebted to Professor Abbe) that 

 in March, 1848, the American Journal of 

 Science, page 297, contains the following item : 



"Telegraphic Reports of Meteoro- 

 logical Phenomena. 

 " Messrs. Jones & Co., Merchants' Ex- 

 change, New York, have made arrangements 

 to give daily and hourly reports of meteoro- 

 logical phenomena, by telegraphic messages 

 from all parts of the country which are in 

 telegraphic communication with New York. 

 This novel and important enterprise will fur- 

 nish more extensive means of synchronous 



comparison of the state of the barometer, di- 

 rection of the wind, and generally of all 

 meteorological phenomena, than were ever 

 before possessed by the scientific world. It 

 is hoped the colleges, scientific institutions, 

 and individuals favorably situated will com- 

 bine their efforts to give efficiency to this 

 scheme, which if properly encouraged by 

 proper hands, cannot fail of interesting re- 

 sults." With this brief notice the service 

 mentioned seems to have passed away — per- 

 haps even before it came into existence, for 

 no traces of it are to be found, even after a 

 most careful search. — M. B. 



3 American Journal of Science, Volume li, 

 page 83, August, 1871. 



