66o The Smithsonian Institution 



such an arrangement with the telegraph lines as to be able to 

 give warning on the eastern coast of the approach of storms, 

 since the investigations which have been made at the Insti- 

 tution fully indicate the fact that as a general rule the storms 

 of our latitude pursue a definite course." 1 The last quota- 

 tion shows the results accomplished by the meteorological 

 service of the Smithsonian Institution. That storms pursue 

 a definite course was now an established fact, and the propo- 

 sition of Franklin that the storms of the southeast advance 

 in a northeasterly direction was recognized as a law. Of 

 practical value is the acknowledgment that the announcement 

 of the progress of storms by the telegraph had been accom- 

 plished, while the original simultaneous publication in the 

 newspapers and on a daily weather map of their advance are 

 incidental results in the development of the science. " It 

 will thus be seen that without material aid from the govern- 

 ment, but through the enlightened policy of the telegraph 

 companies, and with the assistance of the munificent bequest 

 of James Smithson, ' for the increase and diffusion of know- 

 ledge/ the Smithsonian Institution, first in the world, organ- 

 ized a comprehensive system of telegraphic meteorology, and 

 has thus given first to Europe and Asia, and now to the 

 United States, that most beneficent national application of 

 modern science, the Storm Warnings." 2 



In that which has preceded an attempt has been made to 

 show the development of the meteorological work of the 



1 " Smithsonian Report," 1857, page 26. the great system of observations, has im- 



2 Abbe, Cleveland, American Journal of ported standard instruments, and rated and 



Science, Volume n, page 85, August, 1871. constructed hundreds of barometers and ther- 



The following from Norton's Literary Register mometers used all over the continent. It has 



and Book-Buyers' Almanac for 1853, page 49 published full directions for observing, has 



is also pertinent as shown in the workings of now in press a series of hygrometrical, baro- 



the Smithsonian at that time : "No institution metrical, hypsometrical and many other tables 



or government in the world is now doing any- of prime importance, amounting to upward 



thing like as much for meteorology as the of three hundred pages. This and much 



Smithsonian. It has planned and executed more for meteorology alone." 



