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From the 210 stations in the United States, the messages arc shot 

 into one of the two distribution centers, Chicago and New York. Trom 

 Chicago or New York each of those messages is wired out again to the number 

 of stations designated to receive it. For forty minutes to an hour tv;ice 

 each da.;)-, v/eather messages rush over the wires in a continuous strcaifi. 



The 15 Alaskan station reports are collected by radio and sent by 

 cable to Ser.ttle and then forwarded by overland telegraph to Chicago, 



The 64 Canadian reports are collected at Toronto and forwarded by 

 telegraph to the two centers at Chicago and ITew York and distributed in the 

 same manner as the reports from United States stations. 



At Chiccigo 25 telegraph employees, and at New York 15, do nothing 

 but handle TTeather Bureau messeiges darring these regular twice a day periods. 

 As each message comes in, it is quickly passed to duplicators who copy it 

 on ready-addressed and prepared forms for all stations which ore to receive 

 it. In some cases 60 other stations are to get it, in others 80, in others 

 100 or more. Messenger boys on skates snatch up the copies as they are 

 prcp^xed md whizz them to the telegraph operators who wire them out again 

 to the many str.tions. 



A single example will give you some idea of the speed of all this. 

 Mr. Calvert says he has checked up on this many times. A message is filed 

 in, say Abilene, Texas. In from four to seven minutes after the weather 

 message is filed at the Abilene office, it has already been received at 

 Chicago, and wired out o^ain to the 140 other stations designa,ted to ^ct 

 that particular report Hov; do they do it.' 



Of course, those messages are in code. The code is not for secrecy. 

 It is for speed rjid economy. The average length of those 30,000 messr^-cs 

 a day, is only six code words. But at that, those messages mean the sending 

 and receiving of nearly 180,000 weather words each day. 



If a code was not used, it would toke an average of about fifteen 

 words to convey the scune informo.tion in plain language, or about 2-| times 

 as many words. It would not only cost more and take more time to send 

 those 450,000 words a day, but it would actually take tremendously more 

 timo to scrji the messages in plain langua^-e than it does to decode. The 

 messages as now received can be translated by our Weather Bureau men as 

 fast as a mrji can talk. 



Here is one of those messages as it actually cnme over the v;irc in 

 code. See what you can make of it: 



JERSZY ICUGGS DIFFORM TO&GING GASSING KINDLE TTABASH CLODDYS VZRliAIZY 



Sounds like a senseless jumble of meaningless words doesn't it. 



Yet the T/eathor Bureau men readily road that message as saying, 

 "Atlantic City, New Jersey, the barometer roads 29.50, and tha teinpcrat\ire 

 forty. The wind blowing from northeast, state of the weather raining. 



