JAMES HENRY COFFIN. 453 



was also made of the amount of rise in the thermometer per 

 hour, during the prevalence of winds from the northeast by 

 east to south-southwest, and the unequal corresponding de- 

 crease of temperature when the winds were from the north- 

 westerly points of compass. 



While at Williams College, Prof. Coffin erected, upon the 

 Greylock peak of Saddle Mountain, at a height of nearly four 

 thousand feet above the ocean, an observatory, where continu- 

 ous observations were taken, even through the winter season, 

 when for three months it was impracticable to ascend the peak. 

 In this interval the clockwork faithfully did its entire duty. The 

 anemometer had been changed by substituting for the stream 

 of sand a series of cards half an inch square, laid consecutively 

 on a moving band that deposited one of them every fifteen 

 minutes. Each card being inscribed with the day and hour it 

 represented, when the receptacle marked " North," for exam- 

 ple, was examined, all the cards found in it indicated the exact 

 quarter-hour in the past three months when the wind was from 

 that direction. In 1872 he constructed, for the observatory of 

 the Argentine Confederation, at Cordova, a duplicate of this 

 instrument with improvements similar to the one in use at La- 

 fayette College. 



The Results of Meteorological Observations for 1854 to 1859, 

 in two volumes, quarto, 1,757 pages, prepared under his super- 

 vision, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, con- 

 stitute a vast fund of condensed material from which to study 

 the climate of North America. 



But the great work of Prof. Coffin's life was the development 

 of his theory of the winds, under the auspices of the Smithso- 

 nian Institution, the following account of which has been given 

 by Prof. Henry, secretary of the institution : 



" The results of the scientific labours of Prof. Coffin include 

 contributions to astronomy, mathematics, and especially to 

 meteorology. His labours in regard to the latter branch of 

 science commenced immediately after his graduation, and were 

 continued, almost uninterruptedly, until the time of his death. 

 He was early recognised as one of the meteorologists of the 

 country, and, on the establishment of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, he was invited to become one of its collaborators in that 

 line. All the materials which were collected from the observ- 

 ers of the institution, and from those of the army from 1854 to 



