WEATHER BUREAU. 51 



A few only of the post-war problems and demands in the adminis- 

 tration of the affairs of the Weather Bureau will be mentioned here. 



METEOROLOGY AND AERONAUTICS. 



From a phenomenal development under the stimulus of war neces- 

 sities the navigation of the air is rapidly extending to its civil and 

 commercial or industrial stage. Flying in ignorance or disregard of 

 meteorological conditions and warnings is at times suicidal and de- 

 structive of costly property. Even before flying increased so greatly 

 witliin the United States the Weather Bureau inaugurated a service 

 of flying forecasts, effective December 1, 1918, which is conducted 

 in cooperation with the Chief Signal Officer of the Army and for the 

 benefit at first of the Army training posts and the aerial mail service 

 of the Post Office Department, and later destined to be extended to 

 all flying in general. Much development work is needed to make this 

 service the most effective i)ossible, all of which may be accomplished, 

 as flying develops, through existing agencies and channels of co- 

 operation between the public and the branches of the Government 

 concerned. 



METEOROLOGY FOR MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



Closely allied to meteorology for aeronautics, the experiences of 

 the war have created a demand for a service to supply information 

 for artillery, gas warfare, and other kinds of military operations, 

 each in its way different. The influence of winds upon the flight of 

 projectiles has long been recognized, but in the past methods of ol)- 

 serving the actual motions of the free air in the various altitudes were 

 little known and less used, consequently the allowance for wind in 

 tlie older formuhe of the artillerists were largely academic or mero 

 approximations, whereas nowadays the ballistic wind is not a matter 

 of guess or estimation, but of definite and direct observations by 

 meteorologists employed for the purpose and using pilot-balloons or 

 other aerial apparatus which meteorologists have developed and eiu- 

 2)loyed in the advancement of their own science. 



On a peace-time basis these needs are being met by cooperative work 

 and arrangements existing between the Chief of the Weather Bureau 

 and the Chief Signal Officer of the Army, as a result of which a 

 limited number of stations are maintained by the Army, w^hile others 

 constituting a useful coordination of points are established and main- 

 tained by the Weather Bureau. Observations at these stations con- 

 sist chiefly of the flight of small rubber pilot-balloons. The results 

 are used locally as required and telegraphed to the central office of 

 the Weather Bureau for the use of the official forecasters in the issue 

 of flying advices and other information. 



MARINE METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



The submarine menace brought on with the war soon terminated 

 the program of observations which merchant vessels plying the sev- 

 eral oceans of the globe were long accustomed to furnish with the 

 object of supplying data and information concerning the climate 

 and meteorology of the oceans for publication as aids to navigation 

 (marine) on the pilot charts of the Hydrographic Office. This serv- 



