The age-herald., 1901-06-26
Weather Talk That Is Entertaining.

Weather Talk That Is Entertaining.
 Prof. Willis L. Moore, Chief of the United States Weather Bureau. the fa- nous "clerk of the weather for Ameri- ca, who, notwithstanding his great mas tery of the science of atmospheric con- ditions, is entirely unable to satisfy all the people all the time, has issued a pam phlet giving the history of the Bureau and covering it's present-day methods of work.
 With the mercury at 95 in the shade Professor Moores pamphlet is comfort ing. A copy of 1t was received in this newspaper office yesterday which was a very hot day and 1t served the excellent purpose of assisting in getting up today's Age-Herald.
 Hot or cold, sunshine or storm, the real newspaper must be gotten out seven days in every week, you know.
 The weather service of the United States government, upon which the weather services of most other countries are now based, was organized in 1870. thirty-one years ago. It was originally designed for the benefit of navigation alone, but a quick recognition of its great practical value necessitated It's application to both agriculture and commerce, and thus we have it in its present unexampled effi- ciency. For the first twenty years of its existence the Weather Bureaus work was conducted by the Signal Corps of the army, but the final demand for a strict ly scientific bureau, unhampered by regu- lations of a military character, resulted in a recognition of the service, in 1891, and the establishment of the present Weather Bureau as a branch of the Unit. ed States Department of Agriculture, says Professor Moore
 The weather forecasts are based upon simultaneous observations of local wealth CT conditions taken daily at 8 a. m. and D. m, seventy-fifth meridian time. at about 1SO regular observing stations scat tered throughout the United States and West Indies. Each of these stations is equipped with mercurial barometers, ther- mometers, wind vanes, rain and snow gauges. thermometers, sunshine recorders, paragraphs, thermagraphs, and devices which register automatically contipu- ous record of the local weather conditions and changes that occur. The results of these observations are telegraphed to the central station at Washington, where they are charted for study and interpre- tation by experts trained to forecast the weather conditions which may be expect ed to prevail during the next thirty-six to forty-eight hours.
 fba h. servations are taken the forecasts are telegraphed from the forecast centers to 1000 principal distributing points,and from these sent daily to about 5000 addresses In addition to the 1S0 regular observing stations, each of which represents about 23, 900 square miles of territory, there are throughout the country 5000 voluntary stations. Fourteen thousand correspond 7ents sent to Washington weekly reports of the weather as to its effects upon crops and farming operations.
 F Professor Moore points out that the warnings issued in January, 1896, for a single cold wave of exceptional severity and extent, resulted in the saving of over S3 500, 900, in the protection of property from injury or destruction"
 ''On the occasion or the Hoou or loJI III the lower Mississippi valley, live stock and other movable property to the es- timated value of, about s15,OO0,0o0 was re- moved from inundated regions prior to the flood. as result of the warnings by the Weather Bureau a week in advance of it's occurrence"
 Thus the practical value of the bureau in dollars and cents to farmers is graph Ideally illustrated. But no American now questions the great benefits the public derives from the Weather Bureau! Ben M. Jacobs is the local weather ob- seiiver for Birmingham. He fails almost evefy day to give the people the kind of weather they like, but still everybody likeA him. There Is general, though perhaps groundless, hope that some day Mr. Jacobs will reform-the weather, you know.
 Empire Mines Now Shipping Coal. The first regular train load of coal from the new Empire mines in the Horse TsraoL dist riot of Walker County wa q rim