12 The American Geologist. January, 1894 
kee, Detroit, Toledo, Buffalo and Oswego. Very high winds 
at Duluth, Chicago and Cleveland. 
Dr. Laphaiu held the position of assistant to the Chief 
Signal officer until he was appointed State Geologist of Wis- 
consin, but continued his interest in the work, and contributed 
as in previous years, the list of disasters upon the lakes until 
his death, Sept. 11, 1875. 
Dr. Lapharu's agency in the origination of the Weather 
Bureau of the Government was endorsed by Prof. Joseph 
Henry in the following letter to Dr. P. R. Hoy:* 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Feb. 3, 1876. 
Dr. P. R. Hoy, Racine, Wis. 
Dear Sir: Your letter was received during a great pressure of busi- 
ness, and I now embrace the first opportunity to give it a reply. 
The action of Congress in regard to the signal service was due to the 
immediate exertions of Mr. Lapham through the member of Congress 
from his district, general Paine, in setting forth the advantages of the 
system to the commercial interests of the great lakes. 
Yours, very truly, 
Joseph Henry. S< retary. 
Notwithstanding the publicity and the unanimity of assent 
to this claim of priority, there have been some who have at- 
tributed it to Prof. Cleveland Abbe, who received the appoint- 
ment to the position which was at first tendered to Dr. 
Lapham, viz: that of aid to Gen. Myer who was the Chief 
Signal officer at Washington. Dr. Lapham having declined 
it, for personal reasons, he was made assistant at Chicago, as 
above stated. 
It cannot be denied, however, that several others had con- 
ceived the same idea in this country. It had actually been 
put into practice on a small scale, in 1803, in Europe, though 
probably at the instigation of Redfield, Loomis and others in 
this country, who had discussed its principles and methods.! 
It had also been carried on by the Smithsonian Institution, 
under the direction of Prof. Joseph Henry, and by Prof. 
Cleveland Abbe, who, at Cincinnati began a series of syste- 
matic "weather bulletins 1 ' for the Cincinnati Chamber of Com- 
merce in September, 186'.). These bulletins, with predictions 
*Trans. Wis. Acad. Sci., Arts and Letters, vol. in, 1876, p. 234. 
tin the American Journal of Science, July, 1871, Prof. Abbe gives a 
historical review of all efforts by earlier meteorologists to inaugurate a 
system of weather forecasts, and also of his own labors at Cincinnati. 
