THE MANILA OBSERVATORY 



By Rev. Father Jose Algue, S. J., 

 Director of the Manila Observatory 



The Manila Observatory began its work as a non-official enter- 

 prise in the year 1865, under the direction of the Jesuit fathers, who 

 were employed as teachers in their college in the walled city, gener- 

 ally known as the Ateneo Municipal. Soon they commenced oljser- 

 vations on their own account, their principal object being the study 

 of typhoons. The following September one of these typhoons did 

 great damage to the city and harbor of Manila, which caused the 

 Jesuits to become more interested than ever in the discovery of the 

 laws of the typhoons, so frequently destructive of life and property 

 in these regions. The first father who acted as director of the new 

 observatory was the Rev. Father Faura, and the first endeavor of the 

 observatory was. of course, to discover, if possible, some way of fore- 

 casting any typhoon dangerous to Manila, and to announce within 

 sufficient time to avoid disaster the track the storm would probal)ly 

 follow. 



Father Faura was assisted in his task by two other Jesuits, Fathers 

 Nonell and Ricart, and the college provided them with a few meteor- 

 ological instruments, absolutel}' necessary for their researches. With 

 these simple means they began a series of observations which were 

 diligently recorded from September, 1865, until tlie end of 1869. A 

 ])aper containing these records was sent monthly to the princi|»al 

 observatories of the world, followed at the end of the year by a sum- 

 mary of the meteorological results of each month and a brief account 

 of the principal atmospheric i)erturbations noticed during the year. 

 In 1868 the institution acquired the universal meteorograph, which 

 had gained for its inventor. Father Secchi (of Rome), a great fame at the 

 Paris Exposition of 1862. With the aid of some wealthy residents 

 of Manila, several other instruments for direct observations were pur- 

 chased, all of tliem corrected and compared with the standard instru- 

 ments of the French Observatory of Montsoures. As with tliis new 

 set of instruments ol)servations c(nild be recorded on a larger scale, 

 the Monthly Review of the observatory was considerably enlarged and 

 illustrate<l with the correlative meteorologi(;al ciu'ves of the )>rin(ipal 

 meteorological piienoniena of each month. 



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