In the meantime all the essential features for the prediction of meteorological phenomena were in existence in the Smithsonian Institution as early as 1856, having grown up as the result of an extensive series of tabulations of observations recorded by volunteer observers in all parts of the country.

The following historical notes on weather telegraphy, prepared by Professor Cleveland Abbe in 1871,* give a summary of the progress of this work:

However frequently the idea may have been suggested of utilizing our knowledge by the employment of the electric telegraph, it is to Professor Henry and his assistants in the Smithsonian Institution that the credit is due of having first actually realized this suggestion.

The practical utilization of the results of scientific study is well known to have been in general greatly furthered by the labors of this noble institution, and from the very beginning Professor Henry has successfully advocated the feasibility of telegraphic storm warnings. The agitation of this subject in the United States during the years 1830-'55 may be safely presumed to have stimulated the subsequent action of the European meteorologists. It will be interesting to trace the gradual realization of the earlier suggestions of Redfield and Loomis in the following extracts from the annual Smithsonian reports of the respective years:

1847. "The extended lines of telegraph will furnish a ready means of warning the more northern and eastern observers to be on the watch for the first appearance of an advancing storm."

1848. "As a part of the system of meteorology, it is proposed to employ, as far as our funds will permit, the magnetic telegraph in the investigation of atmospherical phenomena. The advantage to agriculture and commerce to be derived from a knowledge of the approach of a storm by means of the telegraph has been frequently referred to of late in the public journals; and this we think is a subject deserving the attention of the Government."

1849. "Successful applications have been made to the presidents of a number of telegraph lines to allow us at a certain period of the day the use of the wires for the transmission of meteorological intelligence * * * As soon as they [certain instructions, etc.] are completed, the transmission of observations will commence." (It was contemplated to constitute the telegraph operators the observers.)

1850. "This map [an outline wall-map] is intended to be used for presenting the successive phases of the sky over the whole country at different points of time, as far as reported."

1851. "Since the date of the last report the system particularly intended to investigate the nature of American storms immediately under the care of the Institution, has been continued and improved."

The system of weather reports thus inaugurated continued in regular operation until 1861, when the disturbed condition of the country rendered impossible its further continuance. Meanwhile, however, the study of

*American Journal of Science, July, 1871.

these daily morning reports had led to such a knowledge of the progress of our storms that in the report for 1857 Professor Henry writes:

1857. "We are indebted to the National Telegraph Line for a series of observations from New Orleans to New York and as far westward as Cincinnati, which have been published in the Evening Star, of this city.

"We hope in the course of another year to make such an arrangement with the telegraph lines as to be able to give warnings on the eastern coast of the approach of storms, since the investigations which have been made at the Institution fully indicate the fact that as a general rule the storms of our latitude pursue a definite course.'

It would seem, therefore, that nothing but the disturbances of the late war prevented our having had, ten years ago, a valuable system of practical storm warnings. Even before peace had been proclaimed, Professor Henry sought to revive the systematic daily weather reports, and in August, 1864, at the meeting of the North American Telegraph Association (see their published report of proceeding), a paper was presented by Professor Baird, on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, requesting the privilege of the use of the telegraph lines, and more especially in order to enable Professor Henry "to resume and extend the weather bulletin, and to give warning of important atmospheric changes to our seaboard." In response to this communication, it was resolved, "That this association recommend-to pass free of charge-brief meteorological reports for the use and benefit of the Institution."

On the communication of this generous response preparations were at once made for the laborious undertaking, and the inauguration of the enterprise was fixed for the year 1865. In January of that year, however, occurred the disastrous fire which so seriously embarrassed the labors of the Smithsonian Institution for several following years. It became necessary to indefinitely postpone this meteorological work, which, indeed, had through its whole history been carried on with most limited financial means, and was quite dependent upon the liberal co-operation of the different telegraph companies.

. It will thus be seen that without material aid from the Government, but through the enlightened policy of the telegraph companies, and with the assistance of the munificent bequest of James Smithson, "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge," the Smithsonian Institution, first in the world, organized a comprehensive system of telegraphic meteorology, and has thus given, first to Europe and Asia, and now to the United States, the most beneficent national application of modern science, the storm warnings. In the report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1858 it is stated:

An object of much interest at the Smithsonian building is the daily exhibition on a large map of the condition of the weather over a considerable portion of the United States. The reports are received about 10 o'clock in the morning, and the changes are made on the map by temporarily attaching to the several stations pieces of card of different colors to note the different conditions of the weather, and the clearness, cloudiness, rain, or snow. This matter is not only of interest to visitors in exhibiting the H. Mis. 170--7

kind of weather which their friends at a distance are experiencing, but is also of importance in determining at a glance the probable changes which may soon be expected.*

In a still earlier report Professor Henry said :

We are indebted to the National Telegraph Line for a series of observations from New Orleans to New York, and as far westward as Cincinnati, Ohio, which have been published in the Evening Star, of this city. These reports have excited much interest, and could they be extended further north and more generally to the west, they would furnish important observations as to the approach of storms. We hope in the course of another year to make such an arrangement with the telegraph lines as to be able to give warning on the eastern coast of the approach of storms, since the investigations which have been made at the Institution fully indicate the fact that, as a general rule, the storms of our latitude pursue a definite course.t In 1868, Cleveland Abbe, then director of the Cincinnati Observatory, revived the Smithsonian idea of meteorological forecasts, and suggested to the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce that Cincinnati should be made the headquarters of meteorological observation for the United States, "for the purpose of collecting and comparing telegraphic weather reports from all parts of the land and making deductions therefrom." His proposals were favorably received, and he began, September 1, 1869, to issue the "Weather Bulletin of the Cincinnati Observatory," which he continued until, in January, 1871, he was summoned to Washington to assist in organizing the national meteorological service, with which he has ever since been iden

tified.

The Smithsonian meteorological system continued its functions until it was finally consigned to the custody of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army. Like all the efforts of this Institution, this work was in the direction of supplementing and harmonizing the work of all others, and attention was especially devoted to preparing and distributing blank forms in this direction, calculating and publishing extensive papers for systematizing observations, introducing standard instruments, collecting all public documents, printed matter, and manuscript records bearing on the meteorology of the American Continent, submitting these materials for scientific discussion, and publishing their results. The Smithsonian work was, dur*"Thirteenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution," p. 32. (1858.)

"Twelfth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1857," p. 26. Also, "Twentieth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1865,” pp. 54–57.

ing its whole existence, under the immediate personal direction of Professor Henry, assisted by Professor Arnold Guyot, who, in 1850, prepared and published an exhaustive series of directions for meteorological observations, intended for the first class observers co-operating with the Smithsonian Institution. The seeds planted by the army in 1819 began to bear perfect fruit fifty years later, when by act of Congress, in 1870, the Secretary of War was authorized to carry into effect a scheme for "giving notice by telegraph and signals of the approach and force of storms," and the organization of a meteorological bureau adequate to the investigation of American storms, and their pre-announcement along the northern lakes and the seacoast was, under the auspices of the War Department, trusted to the Chief Signal Officer of the Army, Brig.-Gen. Albert J. Myer, and a division, created in his office, was designated as the "Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce."

By a subsequent act of Congress, approved June 10, 1872, the Signal Service was charged with the duty of providing such stations, signals, and reports as might be found necessary for extending its research in the interest of agriculture. In 1873, the work of the bureau of the division having been eminently successful, and its successes having been recognized abroad as well as in this country, Congress, by a further act, authorized the establishment of signal-service stations at the light-houses and life-saving stations on the lake sea-coasts, and made provision for connecting them with telegraph lines or cables, "to be constructed, maintained, and worked under the direction of a chief signal officer of the Army, or the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Treasury," and in this year also was begun the publication of a monthly Weather Review, summarizing in a popular way all its data showing the result of its investigations, as well as presenting these in graphic weather charts.

In 1874 the entire system of Smithsonian weather observation in all parts of the United States was transferred by Professor Henry to the Signal Service. A few months previously, at the proposal of the Chief Signal Officer, in the International Congress of Meteorologists convened at Vienna, the system of world-wide co-operative simultaneous weather observations, since then so extensively developed, was inaugurated, and began to contribute its data to the signal-office records. It is un

necessary to trace further the history of the beginning of the meteorological work of the Signal Service, but I doubt not that every one at all familiar with its subsequent history, under the leadership of Generals Hazen and Greely, will agree with the opinion of Judge Daly, the president of the American Geographical Society, when he said that "nothing in the nature of scientific investigation by the National Government has proved so acceptable to the people, or has been so productive in so short a time of such important results, as the establishment of the Signal-Service Bureau."*

The sixth President, John Quincy Adams, a man of culture broad and deep, found the presidency of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences so congenial to his tastes and sympathies that he did not hesitate to say that he prized it more highly than the chief magistracy of the nation. He considered his most important achievement to be the "Report on Weights and Measures," prepared for Congress in 1818, and was justly proud of it, for it was a very admirable piece of scientific work, and is still considered the most important treatise on the subject ever written.

John Quincy Adams revived Washington's national university project, and made battle valiantly for an astronomical observatory.

In his first message to Congress afterward, he said:

Among the first, perhaps the very first, instrument for the improvement of the condition of men is knowledge; and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of human life, public institutions and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of this was the first of my predecessors in this office, now first in the memory, as living he was first in the hearts, of our country, that once and again, in his addresses to the Congresses with whom he co-operated in the public service, he earnestly recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare for all the emergencies of peace and war, a National University and a Military Academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present day, in turning his eyes to the institution at West Point, he would have enjoyed the gratification of his most earnest wishes. But in surveying the city which has been honored with his name, he would have seen the spot of earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country as the site for a University, still bare and barren.t

* 1883, History of the United States Signal Service, with catalogue of its exhibit at the International Fisheries Exhibition. London, 1883; Washington City, 1883; octavo pp. 1-28.

+ John Quincy Adams, in his diary for November, 1825, describes an inter