The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-03-22
International Meteorology-The Prac-
teal Application OF Data I'm the
Protection or Commerce, Agriculture
and Navigation.

by the work of the United States Signal
Service has never failed since the organiza-
ton of the very efficient body of observers
who watch the weather at SO many points
scattered over the public domain. We
have seldom had occasion to question the
methods by which the data so collected are
applied to the purpose Of protecting life
and property on land and sea, and then
recognized that it was owing to the in
elasticity Of the system rather than to
want of ability In utilizing 1t that
any failures should be attributed. The
same may be said of the meteorological
work in France, where the objects sought
to be attained are the accurate provision
from day to day of atmospheric disturb
ances and the safety Of navigation on the
coasts. In England, where there is less
effort made to adapt the most recent dis
coveries in meteorological science to the
practical work of storm warning, the system
is almost s'hide bound" in its rigid adher-
ence to form and rule, and these, in turn,
seem to be founded on the crudest ideas on
the subject of meteorology.
The laudable efforts to organize an inter-
national meteorological system, in which
the chief signal officer Of the United States
Army is taking a prominent part, demand
from US criticism which is intended more
to suggest improvements than to censure
detects. With the object Of securing stimuli
taneous observations at many points on the
Northern Hemisphere, for the making of
synoptic charts Of the atmospheric dis
tribution, it was agreed, as the basis OF the
tons should be made to correspond
with thirty-five minutes past seven A. NJ,
Washington mean time. The reader
will understand that at that physical mo-
ment all the observations of the interna-
tional system are made over the Northern
Hemisphere. Hence these observations
are made later in the local day as the points
are further to the east of the meridian
Of Washington, and earlier as the points
are westward Of that meridian. This being
the fixed rule it follows that there is little
or no variation of the conditions due to
direct solar influence at any Of the points,
except in regard to those that create the
seasons-that is to say, the Washington OBJ
servation is always made in the morning at
thirty-fve minutes past seven o'clock and
the Greenwich observation at torty-three
minutes after noon, that at St Petersburg at
thirty -nine minutes after two p. NJ. and SO
on. At San Francisco, on the other hand,
the observation, to correspond with Wash
ington, must be made at about thirty-nine
minutes after four A. NJ, and earlier in pro-
portion at the Sandwich Islands and points
further west. This arrangement gives the
conditions for one-half the hemisphere dur
ing the dark hours and for the other half
during the daylight hours, without any
variation throughout the year. We may
know from the observations made in con-
nection with a local system what changes
have occurred by reason Of the gradual
increase and decrease of the solar influence
during the day, but we cannot apply the
knowledge intelligently TO international
meteorological investigation in the manner
contemplated by the trainers of the system
now in operation.
There can be no valuable comparison
made between the meteorological condi-
tons prevailing on the opposite sides of the
hemisphere, except under the conditions Of
darkness and illumination, which never
vary for the respective surfaces, being
arbitrarily defined by the times of OBJ
servation. We know that the solar heat
expands the atmosphere, and that on the
withdrawal of that heat in greater or
lesser degree there is corresponding con-
traction of the atmospheric volume. The best
we can do, therefore, under the system now
in vogue, is to keep on comparing the rela-
tons between the conditions over the Central
Pacific at midnight and the Eastern Allan
tic and Western Europe at full noon tide;
between the Middle Atlantic States in the
early morning and China in the early even
ing. We cannot reverse the hours and con-
ditions of temperature at these places unless
we have second observation made also
synchronous with one at Washington or
Paris. Then instead of having a twenty
four hours blank in our international me-
tcorological system we would have one Of
only twelve hours. We are satisfied that
the initial development of storms is largely
involved in the changes that occur in the
volume of the atmospheric envelope caused
by solar heat. but without waiting to dis
cuss that question here we recommend an
amendment to the plan Of observations
which will divide the day into two periods
for the purposes above suggested.
Lastly, we ask, What methods arc being
applied to insure the immediate employ
ment of the data collected by this interna-
tional system? Surely the object of the
system is not the nero collection of data
for ultimate study, or, in other words, the
accumulation Of data that will be lost in its
own voluminousness. If France or Eng
land are to exchange observations with the
United States only every fifteen days what
value, except for study, is to be set