358 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



solve it and to place the difficulty which promises to solve it and to place the 

 subject of electrical observations before the government authorities in such shape 

 at an early date, as to command their attention and support. The plan in ques- 

 tion is embraced in a recent proposal that a number of our leading scientific insti- 

 tutions shall cooperate with the Signal Service in putting this work into practical 

 shape, and thus test its utility. The plan has, we believe, been very favorably 

 considered, and we may hope to see it in practical operation at an early date. 



Prof. John Trowbridge, of Harvard University, who has taken great interest 

 in the subject, has written a very interesting account of the proposed plan of co- 

 operation, from which we glean the following facts. He says : 



" Since our knowledge of meteorological phenomena depends upon simultan- 

 eous observations extended over large areas, a number of stations for observing 

 the electrical state of the air should be established in connection with the Signal 

 Service. The practical difficulties, however, in establishing such stations are 

 great. Each station would require an original outlay of not far from $i,ooo, and 

 the salary of an observer must make part of the yearly expense of the station. 

 This observer must be an experienced man, of a higher grade than the assistants 

 in an ordinary meteorological station. In view of the large expense for equip- 

 ping and maintaining such electrical stations, it is not probable that the Signal 

 Service will establish them until it has been shown that the observations from 

 such stations possess great importance to commerce and agriculture. 



" By a simple plan of cooperation with the Signal Service, Harvard Univer 

 sity, Yale, Columbia and Princeton Colleges, the University of Pennsylvania and 

 the John Hopkins University could enable the United States Government to try 

 the experiment of establishing electrical stations with the minimum of expense. 

 The expense of erecting suitable buildings and of providing experienced observ- 

 ers, could be greatly diminished if each institution would furnish observers and 

 suitable rooms. These institutions form a cordon of nearly a thousand miles 

 along the Atlantic coast where commerce is most active. It is probable that they 

 would be relieved of the routine work necessary for simultaneous observations on 

 the electrical state of the air, when it had been shown that such observations are 

 valuable from a commercial point of view ; for as soon as the universities have 

 performed their high function of leading in scientific inquiry, and the results affect 

 the daily pursuits of mankind, new observations in meteorology, which require 

 special scientific inquiry in physical laboratories, should lead the Signal Service 

 to again extend its observations." — The Manufacturer and Builder. 



