The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-11-09
Weather MAN
on HIS WORK
CHIEF MOORE TELLS PLAINLY
HOW 1T IS DONE.

CHIEF MOORE TELLS PLAINLY
HOW IT Is DONE.
Though Not Reduced to an Exact
Science Forecasting Has Become
Sufficiently Accurate to Save the
Country Millions of Dollars Annu-
ally end Every Year the Work OF
the Weather Bureau Gains in In
terest and Efficiency.
Hon. willis l.. Moore in the Chicago Record
Herald
A BOUT the only knowledge that
"a most people have Of the work.
"A ings of the United States Wealth
~ Bureau of the Department of Agri-
culture Is gathered from the daily
prediction of rain or snow that they
encounter at the breakfast table as
they glance over the morning paper.
They base their estimate of the utility
of the weather service on the accuracy
If the predictions thus hastily scanned.
md many are prone to inquire whether
It is true that this service has really
made a place for itself in the great in
iustrial economy of our country:
whether or not an adequate return is
made for the expenditure OF over $i,-
100000 annually; whether the science OF
weather forecasting has reached its
highest degree of accuracy. and
whether it holds out possibilities of fu-
turc Improvement. They would, doubt
less. he amazed if they knew the
thousand and one ramitications
through which it reaches. daily. prob
ably more than one-half of our adult
population.
The United states government
spends more for scientific research
than any other country in the world
Today every wheel turns with scien-
tif1c precision, and the arts. the man
ufactures. and the commerce OF this
wonderful country are. by the aid OF
systematic knowledge. being developed
far beyond the dreams of the most op-
timistic person of a quarter OF a CEN
tury ago The ingenuity of the Yam
kee and the skill of the American me-
chanic are only physical and outward
manifestations of the inward spirit
whose life has been called into eXis-
tcnce by the many schools. colleges
and polytechnic institutions with which
our broad land is dotted and which.
through the knowledge that they reveal
of the forces of nature. enable man
to harness the invisible powers and
make them obedient to his will. Prob
ably in no way have we shown our ap-
titude in divining from apparent con-
fusion somc fundamental principles,
and in applying those principles to the
commerce and the industry of our
country more than i'm the development
Of the present meteorological service.
Where but few years ago man
thought that chaos reigned supreme
we are now. by the aid of simultan-
cous daily meteorological observations
able to trace out the harmonious rela-
tions of many physical laws that were
previously but little understood.
OF METEOROLOG-
ICAL SCIENCE.
1t will be interesting to note that.
At the time OF the founding Of the first
If the Thirteen Colonies, at jamestown.
Va. in 1907. practically nothing was
known of the properties of the air, or
of methods for measuring its phen-
omena. 1t was not until 1919. twenty
three years after the landing of the
Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. that Tor
ricelli discovered that principle of the
barometer. and rendered it possible to
measure the weight of the superincum-
bent air at any spot where the wonder
full, yet simple. little instrument might
be placed. Torricellis great teacher,
Calico, died without knowing why
nature, under certain conditions, alb
hors a vacuum; but he had discovered
the principle of the thermometer. The
data from the readings OF these two
instruments form the foundation of all
meteorological science. Their inven-
tors as little appreciated the value Of
their discoveries as they dreamed of
the great western empire which should
first use their Instruments to measure
the inception and development of
storms.
About one hundred years after the
invention of the barometer, namely. in
l747, Benjamin Franklin, patriot,
statesman, diplomat, and scientist, di-
vined that certain storms had a rotary
motion and that they progressed in a
northeasterly direction. 1t was pro-
phetic that these ideas should have
come to him long before anyone had
ever prepared charts showing observa-
tons simultaneously taken at many
stations. But, although his ideas in
this respect We're more important than
his act Of drawing the lightning from
the clouds and identifying it with the
electricity of the laboratory, his con-
temporaries thought little OF his phil
osophy of storms. 1t remained for
Redfield, Espy, Maury, Loomis, and
Able. one hundred years later, to gath
er the data and completely establish
the truth of that which the great
Franklin had dimly yet wonderfully
outlined Although American scien-
lists We're the NS0neers in discovering
the rotary and progressive character
of storms and in demonstrating the
practicability of weather services, the
United States was the fourth country
to give legal autonomy to a weather
service: but no one of the other coun-
tries had an area of such extent as to
render it possible to construct such a
broad synoptic picture of air condi-
ions as is necessary in the making of
he most useful forecasts, 1t would
equire an international service, em-
'racing all the countries of Europe,
% equal ours in the extent of area
covered.
Congress authorized the first appro-
priation of 100000 to inaugurate a ten-
tative weather service in 1870. General
Albert j. Myer, to whom was assigned
the chiefship OF the new meteorological
service. doubtless had no conception Of
the future wonderful extension OF the
system that he was then authorized to
,agin is cpnpora oo,,, ,.,..,.