The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-04
rk of the Weather Bureau
Rv FREDERIC J. HASKIN

AZ the volunteer stations the rainfall
is measured in simple rain gauge,
which is 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 rs
mensured and il there is ten inches of
water in it, the rainfall has been one
inch. At the more important stations.
The rainfall is measured by self-record-
inc inst ruments which are graduated To
ono. hundredth of an inch.
The weather bureau costs Uncle Sam
about & $l,500,000 a year. Over against
this may be set the fact that n single
cold wave warning once saved $500
600 worth of property, that flood
warning saved $15,00Q,000 worth Of
property and many lives in the Missis
sippi valley. that storm warnings dis
played one day detained in port coast
vessels with their cargoes valued at
S30,000,000 which otherwise would have
had to reckon with one of the most ter
rife hurricanes ever known on the At
lantic.
The daily service Of weather predic-
tions was begun in the United States
In 1870 by the signal corps Of the
army, and at first was designed TO aid
the navigators of the Great Lakes and
the Atlantic coast. It's scope and pur-
pose were gradually enlarged, and IN
1891 IL became branch of the Depart
ment of Agriculture under the name of
regime the heads of the service were
Generals Myer. Drum, Hazen and Gree
ly, and under the Department of Agrl.
culture, Professors Harrington and
Moore Professor Moore, the present
chief. has been conducting the affairs
of the bureau since July, 1895. The
work Of the service has grown con-
stantly, and in the past few years,
thanks to rural free delivery and the
telephone, it has increased its scope to
wonderful degree. Each day the OBJ
servations 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 it never
will be perfect and infallible, 1t is des-
tined to have n great share in the con-
tinued prosperity of the country.
To the United States belongs much
of the credit for the development Of the
science of meteorology, Benjamin
Franklin by means of his own observa
tIons and his private correspondence,
found that storms moved northeastward
from Philadelphia toward New England.
Thomas Jefferson at Monticello and
James Madison at Williamsburg, in
Virginia, took a series of simultaneous
observations in the years 1iI2-lI7I, and
certain conclusions were drawn from
them. so that the belief took shape that
storms had certain progressive move
ment and Il whirling motion at the cen
ter. the foundation of the science as it
is known today. About the same time
two French scientists proposed to es
tablish stations over n large territory
and TO take observations to discover
the rules of the storm-king's court,
But it was the invention of the tele.
graph that made the plans practiCa
BILE Professor Joseph Henry of the
Smit hsonian institution, who had aided
in the perfection of the telegraph. be
gan to draw weather maps and as early
as 1856 ne displayed them each day at
the institution in Washington. The
Civil war interrupted the work in Amer
lea. In 1863 France began the publ.
cation of daily weather maps, which
has been kept up ever since. Seven
years thereafter the United States be-
gan to issue its daily map. Now the
American meteorologists rank at the
head among the scientists of the world.
What a difference there is between
those days when science kept to herself.
proud aristocrat, and these days. when
she calls up two million farmers over
the telephone to help them with their
work.