3990 
NATURE 

[ Sep¢. 14, 1871 

METEOROLOGY IN AMERICA* 
1pe2 attempt to presage great weather phenomena is 
nothing new. From time immemorial civilised society 
has sought after a plan for averting the violence of the 
storm and tempest as anxiously as it has sought to resist 
the deadly approach of the pestilence and the plague. 
The Great Plague of London, historians tell us, carried 
off in a year about 90,000 persons. This was, however, in 
the rude and undeveloped condition of medical science, 
when the metropolis of England had but few hospitals, 




Uae < - 
FIG. 1.—THE SIGNAL OFFICE AT WASHINGTON 
and every victim was left in his own house to spread and 
speed the march of the contagious foe. Appalling as 
such mortality seems for the year 1665, amidstthe wretched 
and squalid dens of the London poor, it has been over- 
shadowed in modern times by a greater calamity. On 
the 5th of October, 1864, the storm which swept over 
Calcutta destroyed, zz a single day, over 45,000 lives ! 
Yet this is but one of a large number of similar occur- 
rences rivalling in magnitude the great Indian disaster. 
To give forewarning of approaching tempests on the 
coasts of the Adriatic, the Italian and old Roman castles, 
as described by an antique writer, had on their bastions 
pointed rods, to which, as they passed, the guards on duty 
presented the iron points of their halberts, and whenever 
they perceived an electric spark to follow, they rang an 
alarm-bell to warn the farmer and the fisherman of an 
approaching storm. It is interesting to note that this 
ancient Italian custom was widely spread over the earth 
in former ages. 
*We are very glad to avail ourselves of the courtesy of the Editor of | 
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, who has allowed us to reprint, in amodi- 
fied form, an important article on this subject by Professor ‘I’. B. Maury, in 
which a complete picture of what is being done in America is given. It will 
be seen that in many points our own Meteorological system is inferior to that 
now in operation in the States. We should add that the woodcuts have also 
been placed at our disposal by the Editor of the Magazine referred to. 



A new element of science has been introduced—the 
electric telegraph—an invention whose mission of useful- 
ness is destined to unlimited enlargement. 
In November 1854, while the Anglo-French fleet was 
operating in the Black Sea against the stubborn walls of 
Sebastopol, the tidings flashed across the wires that a 
mighty tempest had arisen on the western coast of France, 
and, by the warnings of the barometer, was on its way 
eastward, The telegram was sent by the French Minister 
of War, Marshal Vaillant, from Paris, and reached the 
allied fleet in good time to enable them to put to sea before 
the cyclone could travel the five hundred leagues of its 
course, and disperse or destroy the most splendid navies 
that ever rode those waters. ‘The storm came with a fatal 
punctuatity to the predicted hour. The Crimea, shaken, 
ravaged, scourged by its fury, presented everywhere a 
scene of Havoc and ruin in the allied camp more fearful 
than any the fire of all the Russian forts combined could 
have inflicted. It is perhaps not too much to say that, but 
for that telegram and its timely storm warning, the con- 
gregated navies, far from home and shattered to pieces, 
could not have sustained the besieging armies, and the 
event of the great Eastern war might have been different 
from what it finally was. 
So happily, in this instance, did theory (too often 
despised) blend with fact, that the French War Minister 
said, “It appears that, by the aid of the electric telegraph 
and barometric observations, we may be apprised several 
hours or several days of great atmospheric disturbances, 
happening at the distance of 1,000 or 1,500 leagues.” 
So far as we have been able to learn, the first idea of 
making use of the telegraph for conveying information in 
regard to the weather, with a view of anticipating changes 
at any point, occurred to Prof. Henry, the eminent secre- 
tary of the Smithsonian Institution, in the year 1847, as in 
the report of the Institution for that year, page 190 (pre- 
sented to Congress on the 6th of January, 1848), we find 
the following paragraph :— 
“The present time appears to be peculiarly auspicious 
for commencing an enterprise of the proposed kind. The 
citizens of the United States are now scattered over every 
part of the southern and western portion of North Ame- 
rica, and the extended lines of telegraph will furnish a 
ready means of warning the more northern and eastern 
observers to be on the look-out for the first appearance of 
an advancing storm.” 
Additional references to this subject were made in the 
reports of 1846 and 1849, in the latter of which we are 
informed that ‘‘ successful applications have been made to 
the presidents of a number of telegraph lines, to allow, at 
a certain period of the day, the use of their wires for the 
transmission of meteorological intelligence.” Although 
subsequent reports referred to the intention of the Insti- 
tution to organise a telegraphic department for its meteo- 
rological observations, it was not until 1856, as far as we 
can ascertain, that observations were actually collected 
and posted. In the report for 1857 we find that “the 
Institution is indebted to the national telegraph lines for 
a series of observations from New Orleans to New York, 
and as far westward as Cincinnati, which were published 
in the Lvexing Star.” 
In the report of 1858 it is announced that “an object 
of much interest at the Smithsonian building is the daily 
exhibition, on a large map, of the condition of the weather 
over a considerable portion of the United States. The 
reports are received about ten o'clock in the morning, and 
the changes on the maps are made by temporarily attach- 
ing to the several stations pieces of card of different 
colours, to denote different conditions of the weather as 
to clearness, cloudiness, rain, or snow. This map is not 
only of interest to visitors in exhibiting the kind of weather 
which their friends at a distance are experiencing, but is 
also of importance in determining at a glance the pro- 
bable changes which may soon be expected.” 
