402 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
The synopses consist of a synoptic view of the meteoric condition of the 
United States, collected from the data received at each regular report. 
The probabilities are the deductions made by the office, from the data in its 
possession at the time of each report, as to the meteoric conditions probably to oc- 
cur during the ensuing eight hours. 
The following extracts are from a report made from Professor I. A Lapham 
to the Chief Signal Office, January 16, 1871: 
‘* All papers, reports and instruments were placed subject to my inspection, 
and all facilities were directed to be afforded me in the discharge of these duties. 
My instructions were to furnish daily to the Chief Signal Officer for his consider- 
ation, as quickly as possible after receiving the morning reports, a brief sketch 
of the reports received for the twenty-four hours preceding (or for a longer 
period), as to facts bearing upon the probable weather, with a statement of the 
probable character of the weather for the next twenty-four hours; and in case of 
imminent danger the dispatches were to be immediately published along the lakes 
by the several observers, without awaiting orders from the Chief Signal Officer. 
In the prosecution of this work I have had occasion to suggest certain 
changes and improvements in the methods of doing this important work in hand, 
some of which have been adopted and have resulted in saving the time of the 
observers and of securing greater accuracy of results. 
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‘‘In compliance with these instructions I proceeded each morning, with as 
little delay as possible, to construct a skeleton chart of the matter on a large sheet 
of paper, upon which the relative positions of the several stations had been 
marked, showing the height of the barometer above or below the mean (an- 
nounced to be thirty inches), the state of the matter, the temperature, the direc- 
tion and velocity of the wind, etc., at the several stations from which reports were 
received. ‘These items were so connected by lines (in different colors) as to show 
the districts where the barometer and the temperature were high or low, when 
rain or snow was falling, etc., thus representing to the eye in a comprehensive 
manner the condition of the weather over the whole country, from the Atlantic 
to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the great Northern 
Lakes. ; 
With the aid of the meteorological chart and the column showing the amount 
of change since the last preceding report, and with a general knowledge of the 
character and movement of storms over the interior of our continent, we can 
readily determine what predictions to send forward. 
Comparing one of these with the next preceding, the progress of weather 
changes as they move over the country can at once be seen, and their direction 
and velocity ascertained. 
The first dispatch of the signal service sent from Chicago was dated at noon 
on the 8th of November, 1870. 
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