590 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
of telegraphic dispatches to forecast the approach of storms, was duly received | 
but on account of a press of business and the late recess of Congress I have 
deferred my answer until to-day. 
There can be no doubt from the present state of meteorological science that 
a properly devised and intelligently conducted system of weather telegrams would 
be of great importance to the welfare of commerce as well as of much interest to 
the general public. 
The first application of the telegraph to the forecasting of the weather was in 
1856, by the Smithsonian Institution, and was continued sufficiently long to test 
the practicability of the enterprise, and indeed, use was constantly made of it 
during the winter to determine as to advertising lectures at the Institution. 
Systems of the kind are now in operation in England, France, Holland, 
Italy, and other countries, and are producing results of sufficient importance to 
justify their maintenance at the expense of the government. The Atlantic sea- 
board of the North American continent is much more favorably situated for 
receiving intelligence of approaching storms than the western coast of Europe, 
since, as a general rule, the storms that visit the latter coast are generated on the 
ocean, from which no telegraphic signals can be sent; while a large majority of 
those which prove disastrous to the shipping of our eastern coast, have their 
origin on the land, and moving eastward may consequently be telegraphed in 
advance to the principal commercial cities of the east. 
In order, however, that this system may be of practical value, it is necessary 
that, 1st. The points from which the telegrams are to be sent must be carefully 
selected and furnished with reliable instruments. 2d. These instruments must be 
in charge of persons properly trained to make the observations. 3d. The tele- 
grams must be transmitted regularly to some central point at fixed hours of the 
day. 4th. They must at this center be collated and their indications interpreted 
by persons having a competent knowledge of the laws to which the motions of 
the storms are subjected. 5th. I do not think the military posts as now estab- 
lished will be sufficient to carry out the plan ; additional stations would be 
required. 6th. An appropriation would be necessary for the pay of the tele- 
grams, furnishing the instruments, and the necessary superintendence. 
The Smithsonian Institution has for twenty years been engaged in collecting 
observations in regard to the climate and changes of the weather on the continent 
of North America, and has now a number of persons employed in reducing and 
discussing the materials which have been collected. It receives at the end of 
every month the records of simultaneous observations, made over the whole of 
the United States by about four hundred observers, and from these the laws of 
the phenomena, so far as it is possible to determine them, will in due time be 
made out. The cost of the application, however, of these laws to practical pur- 
poses, must be defrayed by the government or by the community which is most 
interested in the results. I may, however, be allowed to add that any assistance 
