KOAUN SAS C1 
REVIEW OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 
SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 
WOE. IV: NOVEMBER, 1880. NOP 7: 
ME 2Om@l OGY 
METEOROLOGY AND THE SIGNAL SERVICE. 
I. 
The death of Gen. Myer, the late Chief of the Signal Service, and the 
necessity of providing a competent successor, have drawn public attention to the 
Signal Bureau and to the details of the organization. 
The work of the Signal Corps during the late war is well known, but the 
manner in which the meteorological division of the service, as now constituted, 
came into existence and under control of the War Department, is not so generally 
known; and, as the paternity of the work is claimed by several persons, it 
is believed that the following compilation from official papers upon the subject 
will be of service in giving credit where it is properly due. 
On December 8, 1869, Prof. I. A. Lapham, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who 
had been for years a persistent advocate of the importance of some national sys- 
tem of weather reports, in which the telegraph was to play an important part, 
addressed the following memorial to the Hon. H. E. Paine, member of the House 
of Representatives from Wisconsin. The memorial was accompanied by a list of 
disasters upon the lakes, making thirty pages of printed matter, of which the 
summary only is given in this paper : 
MEMORIAL OF PROF. I. A. LAPHAM, OF MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
“Not only does the interest of commerce and navigation, but also that of 
humanity itself, demand that something should be done, if possible, to prevent 
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