158 
THE SCIENT ST. 
The Lale Williiun Ferrtl. 
By the death of Prof. William Ferrel, the 
Kansas City Academy (jf Science loses its 
most valued patron and hono ary member, 
and the scieniific world one of its most 
worthy creators. Ihis last epithet may be 
probably bestowed on one who by his life 
work developed a science from isolated, and 
a|..parently, unrelated facts. This is what 
Professor Ferrel was largely instrume^ta^ in 
doing foi the science of meteorology. In 
the days of his youth, the laws ot storms, or 
air currents, the relation of electricity to 
meteorological phenomena, and kindred sub- 
jects were but little understood. In fact, it 
was considered blasphemous to inquire into 
them. He who would have explained the 
phenomenon of wind, for instance, wuuld 
have been considered a piofaner. Correct 
forecasts of the weather would have been 
convincing proof of witchcraft or some other 
supernalurc^l powCi ! How much the woild 
owi s to such pioneers and creators, discov- 
ers in the fields of science, and especially 
of those sciences that afford the key to a 
higher i ivilization! 
Porn in obscuiiiy and poverty, Professor 
Fcrel, by hi? own efforts, attained a plane 
as hign as that occupied by any of his fel- 
lows. Reared on a farm, he was brought 
i to direct contact with nature from infancy. 
He was, at an early age, attracted to the 
study of astr>..nomy. A.t seventeen he 
could solve problems in maihematical astron- 
omy that Would have puzzled the philoso- 
phers of Greece and the ancient world when 
at the zenith of their fame for learnii^.g. 
After a successful career as a teacher, a 
portion of which , we are glad to say, was 
near Kansas City, at Liberty. M he was 
appointed by the general government to the 
offices of superintendent of the coast survey 
and superintendent of the Nautical Asso- 
ciation. 
He is the author of more than thirty vol- 
umes oa various scientific subjects. He is 
an accepted authority on "the subjects to 
which he gave his aiteniiim. 
Professor F-r el resided in Kansas City 
since lb77. He was so quiet and uiiasirum- 
ing that m.iny of his neighbors did not know 
unt- Ksince his death that his fnme is world- 
wide and that the learned of all lands and 
to igues appreciate the scholarship and truth- 
fulness that characterize his works. 
We can not close without a brief notice of 
some of his most important scientific woik"^. 
In 1856 he published a work on centrifugal 
force as applied to atmospheric circulation 
w^hich gave promi-e cf the great things that 
followed. These ideas were more fully 
elaborated in a government pul I'cation hy 
him entitled, '-M .lii.ns of fluids and solids 
on the earths outface. T ben c?me ' The 
P;oblem of the 'I ides," "Influence of Earths 
Rotation on the Motion of Bodies," "Essay 
on the Winds and Currents of the O ean," 
"Cause of Low Barometer in the Polar Ri - 
o'ions and in the cei tral part i f cj^clones," 
"Relation bet\^ee^ the Bin metiic Gradient 
and Velocity of the wind," Meteorological 
Researches'* etc. t tc. In ;dl of these and 
many uKjre, the story of his discoveries and 
conclusions is well told . 
As an obscure youth, he commenced his 
educational career, in the line of original 
wcrk, with astronomy, so by his own indefa- 
tiguable eaerj^y, he; rose to the zei ith and left 
gleaming there a st. r of the first magnitude 
in the scientific constellation. 
Several years ago, he donated to the Kan- 
sas L ity Academy of science hi= scientific 
library which includes man)- books that have 
had an almost life association with him. 
Under the circumstances, it is light that the 
Academy cast in its unit to reveie and perpe- 
tuate his memory. 
But the fame of Pr.>fessor Ferrel does not 
d pend on the weak efforts (->f our organiza- 
tion, nor of that of any other particular body. 
His work stands as a monument, one ot the 
nob'e5t achievements of a high civilization, 
yet it forcasts a much higher civihzation, 
among the achievements of which, man will 
avert destructive storms on land and sea, 
prevent cyclones, produce rain by artificial 
