The New York herald., 1871-10-21
The New Port Storm signals.

The New Port Storm Signals.
We are gratifed, and the country will also
be, to learn that the Signal Bureau is about to
begin the issue of storm signals to our often
Endangered ports. We publish to-day full
account Of the whole system now adopted for
Americp, and 1t will be obvious to the reader
that there is scientific and solid basis on
which modern meteoroloaists have gone to
work in the execution OF the great idea of
the storm and cyclone-an idea which origi-
pated, as early as 1916, with that eminent New
Yorker, Mr.. William C. Red6eld.
In all ages Of tho world signals have been
balled into extensive requisition The red flag
f,ing over the Consul's tent was the Roman
bignal for battle. AZ far back as the time Of
Homer we find the lighted fire the signal for
fhc Greeks to return from Tcnedos. after the
ttratagem of ''the Wooden Horse" had proved
j success. The daring menace Of Brasidas,
IN the early part of the famous Pcloponnesian
war, in the harbor of Pirnus, was telegraphed
70 Athens by fire signals; and ''the Father of
History" Herodotus, also tells us that
biter the ingorious failure Of the Per-
lians at Marathon, a party in Athens,
inspected of reasonable intercourse with
lhc enemy held up a bright shield as signal
TO the Persians to sail round Cape Sunium and
attack The city while the army was absent.
But the ancient red fag--the battle signal
OF the Romans--is to be turned to new and
bobler purpose in one of those grand arts of
Peace, who ''hath her triumphs no less re-
Gowned than war;" As the danger warning,
6ying by day in sight of hundreds Of cautious
setinen in our ports and harbors,. 1T will be
sign that science has joined battle with the
fierce elements of nature-the storm, the tor
pado and the all crushing hurrcane-and
lhat if il clnnot resist or arrest the deadly
meteor Il can teach man the path Of its gyra-
lion and advance, and thus enable him to
klude the fury of the fcnd
When the lamented Fitzroy of England
frst began to display his signals Oh the tenn
bcstuous shores of Great Britain, the class of
nueducated mariners, the old salts, who had
probably mover examined barometer, and,
In fact, scarcely knew the use Of chrono-
Ncter at sea, were not disposed to regard
these friendly cautions with much respect.
But they soon discovered their error, and in
year their opinion underwent change. In
hsGt IL was found that fifty per cent Of all the
Storm warnings we're correct, and in 1865 that
seventy three per cent were right.
: In France, during the years 1866, out
of one hundred warnings sent, seventy lone
were realized the first year, and in the second
rear seventy six ). aud out of one hundred
Siorms which occurred eighty y-niue were sig
naled during the first winter and ninety-four
Huring the second. In 1866 an interrogatory
: addressed to various mercantile bodies, cham
bers OF commerce and harbor masters in Eng
land, with the view Of ascertaining their
ppiniona, cllciied large number Of replies,
which, with single exception, strongly CON-
lnended the signals for their 'growing cor
rectncss" as ''the means of saving lives and
property TO an immense extent" aud as Every
generally appreciated" Even as early as 1862,
In the infancy of the system, at a meeting of
The shareholders of the Great Western Docks,
nt Stonchouse, Plymouth, it was officially
stated that ''the deficiency Gin the reyenue)
was TO be attributed chiefly to the absence of
kcssels requiring the use of the craving docks
for the purpose of repairing the damages ccca-
STONED by storms and casualties at sea-" And
Dne of the latest reports Of the North-German
Soewarlc states that out of thirty kilograms
or storm warning signals hoisted at Hamburg
Swenty seven or twenty eight were verified.
Without going any further than our own ex-
pcriencc in the brief lifetime of our own
storm signal system, there is every reason to
believe il will continue to increase in accuracy
Mud value. The most disastrous cyclones,
especially those Of last August and September,
we're predicted with mavellous precision from
Washington, and our daily weather forecasts
very seldom fail TO express the general atmos-
pheric conditions and usually foreannounce
lhe changes TO within an hour or two of their
occurrence. The Chief Signal Officer has
adopted the plan Of having no safety signal,
hut only the danger signal, and in Its display
Ae takes great pains to insist that II
5s merely cautionary, and must not be al
lowed to supersede the vigilance Of mariners.
This cautionsry signal will be hoisted when-
ever II is expected that the winds will
Feacn the dangerous velocity OF twenty-five
miles, which, however safe IL might be on the
pecan, Is velocity that endangcrs ship
ping where the sea room is limited, and
especially when the wind is blowing on to q
Ace shore. To avoid complication. the signal
H. square red flag with black square centre
by day aud red lighs by night. The display
oil signals viii begin on the 24th inst. from the
nhin nn..,nrIr of ihn