I-LITS •.VITH THE nILYTKSP. IJUUl: 



Friday. i\fcLE.ir.l7, 1951 



NOT FOR PULLICAT I ON 



Spcalcin:. lime : 10 Mimitcs « 



AMaUi:CE:.S!:T ; Shakospearc makes his fairy. Puck, say; "111 put a girdle 

 rouiid acov.t the earth in forty minutes." That is certainly a swift fli^v.t 

 of fancj'! Lut what the United States 'leather Bureau actually does in 



"forty minutes" is not so slow either.' Listen to this Well, It-, 



Ob, Server? 



A lot of us think we knov/ something about the weather. But '.ir» E. 5. 

 Calvert, chief of the forecast division of the United States VJeather Bureau, 

 says that,, even many of us "weather cranks" don't appreciate what the V.'eather 

 Bureau has to do to collect its observations for the use of its forecasters, 

 quickly and completely. 



Our Teather Bureau maintains 210 stations in the United States, where 

 observations are made tv/ice a day and promptly telegraphed to the district 

 forecast centers and to other stations. 



Similar observations aire received from 64 Canadian stations, and 

 from 16 in Alaska, and, during the hurricane season, observations are re- 

 coi/ed by cable or radio from 21 stations in the Tfest Indies and Central 

 America, twice a day. 



Observations from all these points are filed at approximately 

 8 o'clock Eastern Standard Time and, with the exception of very few outlying 

 T/est Indian islands, all these observations are received at the foracast 

 centers md other stations using them within one hour's time. 



In fr.ct, I.ir, Calvert says, SO per cent of the observations arc re- 

 ceived end charted within the space of 40 minutes. 



That means the filing, and transmission, and delivery of about 15,000 

 messa-;c3 inside of an ?iour. That is 30,000 messages each day during the 

 two hours, morning and evening. 



* * :)c * i(c * 4c 4: He 



Speed is the subject of my story. 



Telegraph, telephone, cable, and radio are used. 



