The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-10-18
THE SIGNAL SERVICE.
ITS Origin. Its Development, and It's
Uses
From Mc Ccurirr-Jorrnd.


The wind bloweth when il listeth
and thou nearest the sound thereof
but cannot tell whence it cometh, OF
whittier il goeth."
However true the above words might
have been at the time they were spo-
ken TO Nicodemus, they have at the
present time lost their significance, and
the man of to-day has no difficulty in
pointing out whence the wind cometh
and whittier it goeth." 1t still, it is
tr1c, "bloweth when it listeth," but its
once mysterious and ln%iess move
ments are mysterious and lawless no
longer. If man cannot control its
movements, he has at least traced out
liz paths, and can follow iii It's circuits.
The searching intellect of the Nine
teenth century has proved that what
hsd previously be, always considered
the most lawless Of the powers of na-
ture, is rs much the servant of law as
the planet that circles i'll its orbit. a
few centuries ago such statements
would have been considered as the
rawlings of insanity, if not sheer bias
phemy, and the uttcrcr of them would
probably have paid for his temerity
with his life. through all the ages of
the past the winds have been looked
upon MS the very essence of instabili-
ty, and no one ever dreamed that their
comings or their goings were within
the reach of human investigation. In
every other field of research men toll
ed nrduous!y, and made vast discovc-
ries, but in the one most infinitely con-
nected with the material prospects and
physical condition of mankind, unit
very recently, no progress was made.
Vague conjecture, born of superstition,
took the place Of scientific reasoning,
and confusion reigned instead of law
Meteorology was Il set phrase III the
mouths of charlatans or astrologers, Or
consisted in some wild theories CON
corning shooting stars and the ignus
.fatus of the swamp; the former being
considered rs the manifestation Of an
angry supernal power, and the latter
the delusion Of Il petty malignant de-
mon who lay in wait to lead poor wan
dcrers nstray. The orbits of the stars
were measured. and their revolutions
completed, but rs regards the move
ments Of the atmosphere in which we
live and move, men knew little or
nothing. I'orricclli made the first step
in the right direction, and made fur
ther progress possible by proving that
the atmosphere possessed weight. Still
more than century elapsed before
any further advance wns made. AZ
last chemistry discoverc its true COM
position, and i'll 1914 DIR. Wells ad-
vanccd our knowledge materially by
the d;acoycry of tho true nature of
dew. How confused were mems opin-
ions on meteorology, even rs late MS
forty years ago, may be gathered from
the fact that in the year 1886 it was
proposed in the Pennsylvania Lcgisla-
ture to pny Mr.. Espy IL certain sum,
varying from $4,000 to $4,000, if
he would make it rain over IL certain
extent of country-thc amount of
money to be paid TO be regulated by
the extent of country over which he
would make it rain. We do not think
he ever got the money, rs we are Ger
tain he never made it rain over any
very large extent OF country, nor is it
i'll the power of man to do so except
to very limited extent, and then only
by fostering the natural conditions ne
cessary FOR such Il consummation. The
only instance when the amount of
rainfall can be influenced is in the
case Of a country naked of timber he
ing converted into woodland by plant
ing, or "a woo;!y country hcing rendered
bare by the destruction of its woods.
1t is known from experience that woods
and forests by protecting the earth
from the effects OF the lays of the sun,
and by their accellernting radiation,
lower the temperature of district and
add to its humidity, which necessarily
increases the rainfall. Even at the
present day, Notwithstanding the vast
diffusion of general knowledge, there
is less known OH the subject of me-
tcorology than on almost any other
subject. 1t has not yet risen to the
dignity of n science III the true acccp-
tation of the term, nor has it yet,
among the general public at least,
shook itself free of the old trammels
of astrology and superstition. Still, a
great advance has been made, and es-
pecially so within the last twenty years.
We have arrived at true idea of the
nature of atmospheric movements, and
have trucr notions of meteorological
subjects generally. We are no more
frightened when fish, frogs or fruit fall
apparently from the heavens, but cnn
ascribe such strange phenomena to
their true cause-namcly. that they
have been picked up by the winds and
carried along to the place where they
have fallen. Thus Ehrenberg, with
his microscope, identified the infuseria
of the valley of the Amazon in the
dust which the winds deposited in the
south Of France.
In respect to meteorological knowl.
edge, the United States has taken the
lead of all the rest of the world, and
has instituted Il system of syncronous
observations, so that the atmospheric
conditions extending over millions oi
square miles of country can be asccr.
tsined at any given time, and the ne
cessary deductions drawn therefrom
This is the only rational way of solv.
ing the great meteorological problem
oud aSrartosninU tho trna notnro ~