238 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 11: 



line of the army are also temporarily attached to 

 the service; and these have control of the disburse- 

 ments, the property, the weather-predictions, the 

 display of signals, the testing and comparison of 

 instruments, the arctic stations, the international bul- 

 letin, the monthly weather-review, the Pacific coast 

 section, and other main divisions of work. 



These six officers, by the operation of the present 

 laws, are being diminished in number by two an- 

 nually, their places being filled by promotions from 

 among the sergeants of the corps; so that in a few 

 years the service will employ only officers and men 

 of the signal-corps proper. This elimination of 

 officers who have had from ten to twenty years' 

 experience in the signal-service and the army is 

 somewhat deprecated by General Hazen, who is very 

 naturally loath to lose their services, while they 

 themselves are loath to go; although it is evident 

 that the corps proper already contains abundant 

 and excellent material for the future needs of the 

 service. 



The signal-service also employs a number of civil- 

 ians — namely, two chief clerks, several clerks of low- 

 er classes, and a scientific staff of three professors, 

 four junior professors, and one bibliographer, and a 

 large number of civilian observers, printers, messen- 

 gers, artisans, etc. — at various points throughout the 

 country. The number of civilian employees at the 

 central or Washington office is sixty-four, all of whom 

 give their whole time to the work. The total of those 

 employed at other stations is apparently much greater 

 than this; but each is employed only a short time 

 daily, and most of them receive but twenty-five cents 

 per day for some one special observation and record. 

 The enlisted men of the service occupy about two 

 hundred stations scattered throughout the United 

 States, including Alaska, at an average distance of 

 two hundred miles apart. About an equal number 

 of stations are also occupied by civilians, observing 

 the height of water in the rivers, or displaying storm- 

 signals. From about forty-five hundred other civil- 

 ian observers, reports are received gratuitously by 

 mail on weekly or monthly forms. These observers 

 are classified about as follows : voluntary land-observ- 

 ers, 270; voluntary marine-observers, 480; interna- 

 tional observers, 330; Canadian observers, 18; state 

 weather-service, 450; tornado-observers, 1,200; thun- 

 der-storm reporters, 2,000. 



The following are some of the more prominent 

 and important steps of progress taken during General 

 Hazen's administration: — 



The introduction of consulting specialists and civil- 

 ian experts into the available working-force of the 

 office; the assignment of selected sergeants and pri- 

 vates to work demanding a higher education and 

 special aptness for investigation or study ; the or- 

 ganized study of tornadoes, thunder-storms, atmos- 

 pheric electricity, and other important novel fields 

 of meteorological study; the introduction of w r eather- 

 signals upon railroad-trains for the benefit of the 

 farmers, and of local town-signals for the benefit of 

 each community; the establishment of more severe 

 rules for the verification of predictions, so that the 



eighty-five per cent claimed at present means much 

 more than it did a few years ago; the enlistment 

 of a higher grade of men ; the improvement of 

 the courses of instruction for men and officers ; the 

 compilation of a working-index to the literature of 

 meteorology and the signal-office library; the organi- 

 zation of new divisions in the office, especially of the 

 study-room, the physical laboratory, the marine di- 

 vision, and the examiner's division; the publication 

 of a monthly summary of international simultane- 

 ous observation, with a weather-chart showing espe- 

 cially the storms on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 

 that affect the United States; the special study of 

 atmospheric moisture with a view to improved meth- 

 ods of determining this factor; the special study of 

 the exposure of thermometers, and correct methods 

 for determining the temperature of the air; the main- 

 tenance of two polar and several auxiliary stations 

 in pursuance of an international system for the study 

 of the meteorology of the polar regions; the adoption 

 of many of the recommendations of the European 

 international meteorological congresses looking to 

 uniformity of methods throughout the world ; the 

 adoption of improved methods of reducing baromet- 

 ric observations to sea-level ; the stimulus given to 

 the formation of state weather-services (this great ad- 

 vance has been wholly due to General Hazen, who 

 has not hesitated to declare himself in favor of co- 

 operation, and not monopoly; by his circulars and 

 assistance, over fifteen states have been led to de- 

 velop minute internal systems for the study of local 

 climate and the dissemination of weather-predic- 

 tions) ; the stimulus given to higher scientific work 

 by members of the signal-service, by requiring and 

 publishing professional papers, signal-notes, trea- 

 tises, etc. ; the addition to the signal-office of a few 

 experts in scientific matters, who are responsible 

 for the proper conduct of work requiring special 

 study; the establishment of a high class of standard 

 instruments, and more exact methods for testing- 

 apparatus furnished to the stations, thus assuring 

 against any deterioration in the accuracy of the 

 work through many years to come; the encourage- 

 ment and co-operation in scientific work, bearing 

 on meteorology, by outside parties, such as spec- 

 troscopy, the study of solar heat and atmospheric 

 absorption, and the prosecution of balloon-voyages; 

 the adoption of a uniform standard of time for 

 all observers; the adoption of a uniform standard 

 of gravity for barometric reductions; the intro- 

 duction of new special cautionary signals for high 

 north-west winds and cold waves; the extension of 

 signal-service stations in Alaska for the proper 

 study of storms that strike the Pacific coast, and 

 are followed by the severe cold waves from Mani- 

 toba. 



In the prosecution of these and other multifa- 

 rious labors, the signal-service certainly demands a 

 high degree of organization, discipline, and intelli- 

 gence; and it is by no means clear that this can 

 be obtained in any better way than by a proper 

 combination of military and civilian observers and 

 scientific men. 



