The Washington herald., 1907-05-04

measured in a simple rain-guage, which
has funnel shaped mouth leading into a
vessel OF exactly one-tenth the superficial
area OF the mouth of the funnel. The
water in this vessel IS measured, and If
there is ten inches OF water in 1t. the
rainfall has been one inch. AT the most
important stations, the rainfall is meas
ured by self-recording instruments which
are graduated 10 0ne-hundredth of an
inch.
The Weather Bureau costs Uncle Sam
about I.500000 a year. over against this
may be set the fact that a single cold
wave warning once saved $500, 900 worth
of property. that flood warning saved
Sl5s0oOOO worth of property and many
lives in the Mississippi Valley, that storm
warnings displayed one day detained ia
port coast vessels with their cargoes. val
ued at S30,o0Q0O0, which otherwise would
have had TO reckon with one Of the most
terrific hurricanes ever known on the At
lantic.
The daily service Of weather predictions
was begun in the United States in 1870
by the Signal Corps of the army. and at
first was designed 10 aid the naHgators
of the Great Lakes and the Atlantic
coast, Its scope and purpose were grad
ualiy enlarged. and in 1891 it became a
branch of the Department Of Agriculture
under the name of the Weather Bureau.
Under the army regime the heads OF the
service were Gems. Myer Drum, Hazen,
and Greedy. and under the Department
Of Agriculture, Profs. Harrington and
Moore. Prof. Moore. the present chief,
has been conducting the affairs of the
bureau since July, 1895. The work OF the
service has grown constantly, and In the
past few years, thanks 10 rural free de-
livery and the telephone. it has increased
its scope TO a wonderful degree. Each
day the observations taken the day before
are added TO the stock OF knowledge Of
the experts. and with each day the
errors arising from inadequate knowledge
are fewer The service is becoming more
and more efficient and while il never viii
be perfect and infalIble. il is destined to
have a great share in the continued pros
perity OF the country.
To the United States belongs much of
the credit for the development of the
science of meteorology. Benjamin Frank
lin, by means of his own observations
and his private correspondence, found that
storms moved northeastward from PhiIa-
delphia toward New England. Thomas
Jefferson at Monticello and James MadI-
son at Williamsburg. in Virginia took a
series Of simultaneous observations in
the years 1U2-1777. and certain conclu-
sions were drawn from them. so that
the belief took shape that storms had a
certain progressive movement. and a
Whirling motion at the center. the rOun-
datlon Of the science as Ii is known to-
DAY. About the same time two French I
proposed 20 establish stations
7Ycr large territory ana 10 take OBJ
zeryations 70 discover the rules of the
storm kings court.
But it was the invention Of the teIe-
graph that made the plans practicable. I
Prof Joseph Henry. Of the Smithsonian 4
Institution. who had aided In the perfec- 4
ion Of the telegraph. began to draw
weather maps. and as early as 1856 he /
displayed them each day at the iustitu- /
ion in Washington. The civil war IN
errupted the work in America. In 1863
France began the publication of daily /
weather maps. which has been kept up
ever since, Seven years thereafter the
United States began 10 issue its daily
nap. Now the American mete0rOIogists
'ank at the head among the scientists OF
he world. What a difference there is be
ween those days when science kept to
herself, proud aristocrat, and these days
when she calls up 100000 farmers over
he telephone TO help them with their
yOrk