ADDRESS OF PROF. S. NEWCOMB. 463 



only remark that our colleague brought into his new field that same 

 unselfish devotion to the intellectual interests of mankind which 

 marks the purely scientific investigator. Whatever utilitarian 

 objects he may have aimed at, they had no personal reference to 

 himself. He never engaged in an investigation or an enterprise 

 which was to put a dollar into his own pocket, but aimed only at 

 the general good of the world. 



One of the earliest of his new enterprises was that of receiving 

 notices of the weather by telegraph and exhibiting them upon a 

 map, thus laying the foundation of our present meteorological 

 system. In 1847 he called the attention of the Board of Eegents 

 to the facilities which lines of telegraph would afford for warning 

 observers to be on the watch for the approach of a storm. As a 

 part of the system of meteorology, the telegraph was to be employed 

 in the investigation of atmospheric phenomena. The advantage to 

 agriculture and commerce to be derived from a knowledge of 

 the approach of a storm was recommended as a subject deserving 

 the attention of Government. About 1850 the plan of mapping 

 the weather was instituted. Many of us remember the large maps 

 of the country suspended in the entrance to the Institution, on which 

 the state of the weather in different regions was indicated by mova- 

 ble signs. This system continued until 1861, when the breaking 

 out of the civil war prevented its further continuance.* 



After the close of the war a renewal of the system was proposed 

 and some efforts made for the attainment of this object. But with 

 this as with every other enterprise, Professor Henry would never 

 go on with it after any one else was found ready to take it up. In 

 1869 our colleague, Professor Abbe, commenced the issue of regular 

 weather bulletins from the Cincinnati Observatory, showing the state 

 of the weather at a number of telegraphic stations, followed by a brief 

 forecast of the weather which would probably be experienced at 

 Cincinnati during the next twenty-four hours. About the same 

 time provision was made by Congress for the national system now 

 so thoroughly organized by the Chief Signal Officer of the Army. 

 This system received the cordial support of Professor Henry, who 



*See Historical Notes on the System of Weather Telegraphy, by CLEVELAND 

 ABBE, American Journal of Science and Arts, Volume n, 1871, page 81. 



