Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-11-09
SEA WEATHER SERVICE
Scheme For a Worldwide Fore
 casting System.
EVERY SHIP A WIRELESS STATION

l EVERY SHIP A WIRELESS STATION Chief Moore of the Weather Bsreas l, Would Have All Ocean vessels
 Equipped With New rcIegrabh De-
 vice-Izow It Would Greatly Lsssen
 Dangers of NnviGntion-IIow Organ.
 nation Can He EasiIy Effected. l Willis L. Moore, chief of the Amerl. can weather bureau. hopes to see the day when every ship of any size that sails the seven seas will be weather observatory, equipped with instruments furnished by the weather bureau of the department of agriculture and i making daily reports of It's observa- tions either directly to Washington or to some wireless telegraph station that will transmit them to Washington, says n special dispatch to the New York i World
 As q corollary weather reports issued at least daily would be furnished to every ship having q wireless telegraph equipment. Then the dangers of nayi- gation would be greatly lessened, for if navigator can have twenty -four hours warning of a storm that is nov Ing in hls direction he can take meas ures to sail out of the probable track of the disturbance or if that is imprac- ticablc t.ke steps to have his ship in such state of preparation that the danger of wreck is reduced to a mini mum.
 By the use of wireless telegraphy, says Chief Moore 1t will be possible to discover where storms originate if that point of origln.is within the regions in which ships sail in numbers great enough to afford opportunities for re- ports. On land and sea there are ir- struments which measure within few feet of break in an electric current. It will be possible to figure almost as closely with respect to destructive storms.
 The American weather service gave warnings of the approach If the recent southern hurricane In tine for all ships along the coast above the southern end of Florida to get Into shelter The fact that the storm continued eastward after passing through the straits of Florida instead of curving northward and come boiling up the coast does not dctract from the value of the warning. Tie storm simply failed to go where 1t would have caused the greatest de- struction had there been no warning.
 If the wireless telegraph service Lad been in existence all the shipping in the lane leading from Europe to tho West Indies would have been warned of it's approach. together with m ac- curate statement of the direction 1t had when 1t departed from the ken of the observers on land. Navigators In that lane, knowing that the storm would not strike anything to again change it's i, course, would have been Justified In believing that it was coming straight for them long before their barometcrs began showing them the existence of disturbance somewhere near them.
 There Is a good foundation upon which to rear the proposed superstruc- ture Great Britain, France. Germany and Spain, In Europe, and Japan. in the orient, maintain weather services patterned after ours, the pioneer in that line of research, with. which an exchange of news is maintained. The daily weather maps of those countries are sent to the United States govern ment, and all the storms reported to them are carefully recorded by the forces employed by the United States government.
 The other day in the bureau of ocean metoorology q cartographer was trans ferring the lines made by the Japanese photographers to a blank map of his own. The Japanese record will be of use in the future to show what was happening in the eastern seas on given day, and comparison of such maps will enable forecasters to obtain a good idea of what will happen else where.
 An international agreement either m the form of treaty or 9 mere agree ment between the heads of the various services will be needed to make the proposed service of value. 1t will be necessary to have It understood what part of the seas each nation will under i take to .cover" with it's own reporters of phenomena, else there would te end less confusion.
 One great obstacle now to such a system is the fight among the inycnt- ors of the various systems of wireless telegraph instruments. They will not communicate with each other. That state of affairs will not exist a month after any one of the strong govern ments decides that there must be an interchange between the rival systems. 1 such as Is made by the railroads of the United States. This government can forbid the transmission of messages for any system that refuses to exchange with another just as easily as 1t can forbid the transportation from one state to another of meat that has rot been inspected by the federal govern ment Tine national soyernment has ID right to force It's inspection upon cisi- Eens of any state. but Its right to for [ bid or to regulate interstate commerce is unquestioned The rival wireless