The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-01-17
U. S. WEATHER BUREAU.
Some Interesting and Instructive Obser
vatiOns About the Objects 1t Seeks
and the Work it Does,
BY CLARENCE J. NORTON.
PART VI.

and agriculture. And in this subject,
as in electrical experiments, Benjam-
in Franklin was the pioneer observer
and diseoverer. He was the first to
note the tact of the general eastward
! movement of storms in this latitude;
and his discovery was based on the
occurrence of a storm with a strong
north easterly wind III Philadelphia
some hours previous to its appear
ance In Boston. By means of cores
pondence with other scientific obser-
vers and inquiries of navigators and
travellers, Franklin established basis
for his theory that the northeast
wind and transforms along the Allan
tic coast begin to the leeward and APP
parently travel against the wind. In
letter to Jared Eliot, dated at Phila-
delphia July Is, l747 Franklin note:
eve have frequently, along this
North American coast, storms from
the northeast which blow violently
sometimes for three or four days. OF
them L have had very singular op-
inion for some years; that is, that
though the course of the wind is from
the northeast to southwest, yet the
course of the storm is from southwest
to northeast; the air is in violent COM
motion in Virginia before it moves in
Connecticut, before it moves at Cape
Sable"
This first definite contribution to
scientific knowledge of storms in this
country opened the way to observa-
tions and discoveries by numerous
scientists of the present century, re-
sulting in the development of the
science of meteorolOgy and the estab-
lishment of the American Weather
Bureau.
After Franklin came VIM. G. Red
field, to whom belongs the honor of
having established the theory of the
rotary and progressive movement of
the Atlantic storms. His observa-
tions were directed chiefly to the &C.
casional severe storms of the Allan
tic coast, known as the West India
hurricanes or cyclones.
IN 1850, or 1OS years after Frsnklin's
discovery, Prof. Jas. P. Espy publish
ed his noted work entitled 1.-THE
Philosophy of Storms;" wherein he
directed attention to the more fire.
quent storms which traverse this
continent, showing that they are all
essentially cyclonic and bear a close
resemblance to the West India hur-
ricanes of the seabosrd. The larger
number of American storms, he show
ed, are first heard of in the region be-
yond the Mississippi. Prof. Loomis
and Dr. Henry were later workers in
this field of scientific research, and to
their labors, more than to any of their
contemporaries, we are indebted for
the establishment of the Weather
Bureau, whereby we are given daily
weather maps showing the origin and
progress of all storms that affect this
continent.
Each daily map contains complete
reports of observations taken exactly
at a certain minute, in almost every
principal city in the United States
and at a glance we can see the
mean temperature isothurms, the bar
ometer isobars, the storm center, the
temperature at the time of observa-
ton; the minimum temperature; the
direction and velocity of the wind;
the state of the sky; whether clear,
cloudy, rain or SHOWS fog or mist; and
the actual precipitation for the last "a
hours, and forecasts for Sc hours ahead.
Every postmaster can secure these
maps by simply agreeing to display
them and you should stir your post
master up to ask the chief of the
weather bureau at Washington to
forward it,
By the means of government aid
the fundamentally of the
weather bureau, greater progress has
been made within the past twenty
five years than ever before. The
has given it powerful aid
in recognition of the fact that more
thorough knowledge of the weather
and of the natural laws that cause
weather change is of great practical
utility.
By the agency of the Weather
Bureau with its hosts of trained OBJ
servers in all parts of the Union and
some of the West Indies and Canada,
we are given twice day. by tele-
graph, reports of the weather cOndit
ions in all parts of the continent at
the same instant of time. These OH
servers are supplied with standard
instruments of scientific accuracy,
and the forecast officials easily eau
predict the course of a storm.
From day to day We may note on