
} 
Sept. 14, 1871] 
The report for 1859 contains a list of thirty-nine stations 
from which daily weather despatches are received, and 
the report for 1860 refers to forty-five stations. In the 
report for 1861 Prof. Henry announces that the system 
has been temporarily discontinued, in consequence of the 
monopoly of the wires by the military department, and in 
‘NATURE 
391 
of first initiating and carrying into successful opera- 
tion the systematic use of the telegraph for the above- 
mentioned object. 
In the year 1857 Lieutenant M. F. Maury, then Super- 
intendent of the National Observatory at Washington, 
appealed to the public and Congress, through the press, 
1862 it seems to have been again resumed. 
i urging the establishment of a storm and weather bureau, 
It is very evident that to America belongs the credit | 
and at the same time made an extensive tour through the 
































































































































































































































FIG, 2.—INTERIOR OF INSTRUMENT ROOM IN OFFICE OF CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER 


















































































































































































































































































FIG. 3.—MEAN ANNUAL ISOBAROMETRIC LINES FOR THE UNITED STATES 
north-west, addressing the people with a view of rousing | that system of meteorological co-operation and research 
public attention to the vast importance of this meteoro- | which had been so signally beneficial to commerce and 
logical system. navigationatsea. The Brussels Conference endorsed this 
In the Journal of the American Geographical and | recommendation. Much stress, in these appeals to Con- 
Statistical Society for 1860, we read that “As long ago | gress and the people, has been laid upon the value of the 
as 1851 we find the Superintendent of the National | magnetic telegraph as a meteorological implement ; for 
Observatory at Washington urging the extension to the | it was held that by a properly managed system of daily 
land—for the benefit of farmers, the shipping in our ports, | weather reports by telegraph warnings of many, if not 
and the industrial pursuits of the country generally—of | most, of the destructive storms which visit our shores or 
