St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-12-13

PROPHETS PROPHESY-AN EXACT SCI
ENCE-THE SUGAR WAR -ALARMIs1
REPORTS.
NEW YORK, Dec. 6, 1873.
To the Editor of the Caledoniam:
The recent experiences of this i'll
starred section of country over which
the weather clerk seems to have turned
on the celestial faucet, and then gone
off on ten-day vacation, suggest to me
a few remarks on the subject of that in,
stitution whose destinies are swayed by
the weather clerks vicar general in
America, Gen. Myer, and which is COM
monty known as the Weather Bureau.
An Englishman on his native heath is
never without an umbrella. "YOu never
know, you know" what trick an inno-
cent-loOking sky will play you there in
its fickleness. But an American rebels
at the thought of being chained to an
umbrella. In the rush with which be
always conducts his business, this al
pacca nuisance is invariably in the way
of arms OF legs, while the mental ankle
ty generated by the attempt to remem-
Der where the article had been left, as
he appears empty-handed at home, is
enough to drive his religious training
into a corner where it will not interfere
with few left-handed remarks. If il
really rain, he accepts his umbrella as
an uncomfortable accompaniment to his
overshOes, for no Yankee has yet got
ahead of nature to the extent of invent
ing patent cloud turnover to make it
rain the other way. 1t is only the car
rying of the wobbling apparatus all day
with no signs of moisture after the first
half hOuI in the morning, that brings
about the lamentable state of profanity
limited at.
Nowadays the several morning pa
pers publish probabilities" as to the
state of the weather, and umbrella car
rying has been reduced to Il system.
For this thanks are due to our Signal
Service. The practical working of this
organization is under government con-
troll, and is familiar to few outside OF
those Immediately interested. With a
central office at Washington, there are
about two hundred branch stations scat
tered over the country. At all these
stations three observations are taken
daily, the results of which are telegraph
ed to Washington. Upon the arrival of
each set of dispatches, IA chart is made
out, and forwarded to the principal
cities. The tri-daily reports to head
quarters include the state of the barome-
ter, thermometer, hygrometer, Showing
the moisture in the atmospheric diIec-
ton of the wind, the velocity of the lat
Ter III mIIes ana POUNDS or pressure, Tire
kind and amount of upper and lower
clouds, rain, hail. snow or sleet, as the
case may be, and such other informa-
ton as may carefully describe the at
mospheric surroundings of the locality
whence the reports come.
In New York city the Office is situat-
ed on top of the Equitable Insurance
building. | paid visit to the superin-
tendent in his sky parlor the other day,
and was particularly interested in the
little machine which indicates the rate
at which the wind may Ice blowing at
any time. On an elevated place where
the breeze is unobstructed, are four hOl-
low hemispherical cups so arranged as
to catch the wind. The cups are at Ell
Their end of two rods which are crossed
at their centres, and rest at that point
on a registering rod connected with a
disc, which in its turn is connected by
electricity with a registering drum in
the office of the superintendent. The
disc on the rod is so arranged that il
makes one revolution as each mile OF
wind passes. The electric current is
broken by points coming in contact with
each other during a revolution of the
disc, causing pencil in the registering
machine to indicate the fact upon drum
covered with paper and kept revolving
by means of clock work. The paper
over this drum is divided by lines with
spaces representing hours and fractions
thereof. The pencil follows straight
line until the magnet is released, when
the lead point makes a mark to the left.
and Immediately flies back again. The
spaces between these marks indicate, OF
course, the velocity of the wind per
hour. The large stations are supplied
with presses and type, and early in the
morning (three or four o'clock) bulletins
are printed and mailed to pOst-masters
in the vicinity. These are called EARN
er's Bulletins" and are posted where
they can be readily examined. The New
York Office sends out over seven hun
dred of these each morning. The APP
parently difficult problem of determin-
ing a storm centre, and the direction in
which the storm is travelling, readily
solves itself when a few points are I'M
derstood.
As reports are received at the Wash
nnrfn off
chart connecting places having the
same atmospheric depression. High
pressure always moves towards low
pressure. The storm centre is at the To-
cality where the pressure, as indicated
by the barometer, is at its lowest point.
The wind is created by the denser air
surrounding the centre rushing in to fill
the space, the wind becoming weaker as
the distance back from the storm centre
increases. The signal stations having
been Informed by telegraph of this cen
tire, the approach of wind is foretold,
and by knowing the temperature, the
amounts of moisture and cloudiness at
the different localities, the state of the
weather accompanying this wind can be
readily ascertained. Several storm CEN
tres often occur at the same time in diff
ferent sections of the country, and then
there's the what's-his-name to pay. Sea-
faring folks consider winds as storms,
whether accompanied by rain or not.
The single weak point in the service is
the absence of means for recording the
state of the weather on the Atlantic.
But even this fault might be RENE
died, and indeed plan has, believe,
already been proposed, by which yes
sci kept in mid-ocean could tap the At
lantic cable, and ferewarn both Europe
and America of approaching disturb
ances. That something of the kind will
eventually be perfected there can be no
doubt, and when this is done it cannot