The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-11-17
Tho Signal Saryico,


Chief Signal Officer, has been completed.
General n zen says the year last past has
bssn Distinguished by additional progress
The establishment OF permanent school Of
instruction ut Fort Myer. Va; the raising
Of the standard OF the personnel Of the Sig.
nal Corps; the specialization of the duties
Of the Signal Service; the preparation Of
new instructions for observers Of the serv.
ice; the preparation Of new and improved
forms for the recording and preservation OF
meteorological data; the preparation Of
special bulletins for the press, containing
weather information Of public interest; the
forecasts Of weather, Of hot or cold waves
for periods exceeding twenty.four hours;
the forecasts Of 'northers' for the
Interior plateau; the adoption Of .
new stOrm-signal (the cauttonary
Northwest) for the interior lakes; the ar.
rsngement for the increase of river service,
and wider publications OF warnings Of floods
or ice-gorges; tho changes aud improve.
ments in the publication Of the international
bulletin and the monthly weather review,
with their accompanying charts; the in
creased Information. added to the farrneFs'
and to the railway bulletins; the orxxnisa-
ton Of service for the special benefit Of tho
cotton interests of the South; the extension
OF special frost.warning 10 the fruit inter-
ests OF the country; the investigation into
thermometric standards, and into baron.
etrtc standards; the preparation OF new by
grometrio tables containing correction for
altitude; the revised determinations OF the
attitudes OF Signal Service stations the
computation Of monthly constants for the
reduction Of observed barometric pressures
to sea.level; the arrangements for original
investigation In atmospheric electricity,
In anemonetry, and in ac,inometry, aud,
in the last subject, especially with ref
ereuoe to the impo, lance Of solar radiat ion
In agriculture aud the absorption Of the
suns heat by the atmosphere; the co-op-
GRAFTON in an expedition to the summit Of
Mount Whitney, California, Tor the deter.
minatton Of problems in solar physics In
neurology, the preparation Of conversion
tables Tor the English aud metric systems;
the cooperation In the dropping Of tins
balls at Signal Service stations; the public l.
ton in quarto form OF special professional
papers; the Offering Of prizes for essays Of
great merit on meteorological subjects; the
organization Of State weather services; the
new investigation or danger lines on West.
ern rivers; the organization and equip
ment of two expeditions for meteor.
illogical observation and research In
the Arctic regions Of America, one
to be stationed at Lady Franklin Bay, the
other at Point Barrow, Alaska, both CO.
operating in this work with system of sta
lions established In the Polar region by in
ternational conference; the establishment
Of system Of stations Of observation in
Alaska. ;. III
In regard to the collection Of data upon
which to predicate information Of value IA
the cotton interest, he had located stations
in the cotton belt, from which the rain fall,
direction Of winds, temperature, etc. ,
would be telegraphed daily to selected GEN.
tiers. for distribution at the expense Of the
Signal Service, to the Cotton Exchanges
in all important cities in the cotton
region. Two hundred and forty .eighi
auxiliary stations were promised, which
opened to the United States very favorable
opportunity Of obtaining meteorological
data, at very slight expense, from q region
whose agricultural interests depend, to an
unusual extent, on climatic conditions, not
yet as well understood as they should be.
Unfortunately Congress did not appropriate
the amount which had been carefully esti.
mated IS necessary to meet the expense Of
the increased work proposed for the Signal
Service, and its Chief was unwillingly com.
pelled to reduce the number of stations Ia
be established to 100, selected from the 24s
stations promised, which are so situated u
10 best cover the cotton belt.