Evening star., 1909-05-24
PROPOSED UNIFORM CODE
Wireless Methods to Be Discussed at
International Conference.
GREAT FACTOR IN LIFE-sAvING
System to Be Adopted That Will Be
Readily Understood by Marin
ers Of All Nations.

| Flashing around the world by wireless
/ telegraphy warnings of approaching
! storms and other disturbances of the
/ elements Is one of the latest lnternat1onal
projects. Still another OF perhaps little
less Importance is the proposition to
| equip the vessels of all nations with uni
| form storm signals.
| These are the leading problems to be
1 thrashed out at a conference or dlstln-
| guished meteorologists of the prlnclpai
nations to be held in London England
June 21 next, and which will continue LOT
a week The proposed conference is the
! outgrowth of a conference OF the leadnS
meteorologists of the world heio IN
Europe several years ago. Ihe Unteo
States undoubtedly will play an 1mpor-
/ tant role in this. gathering. and Will De
1 represented by Prof Willis l.. Moore,
chief of the United States weather bu-
reau.
| A concerted movement will be inaugu-
| rated at the coming conference 10 lnduce
the principal governments to adopt
uniform system of wireless telesraphy
| marine weather reports and to reach an
| agreement so that all nations snail ois-
play a uniform marine storm signal.
Insure Greater Safety.
| If an international agreement OF such
| character can be effected 1T is beIeved
| that it will be a great factor IN saving
! life and property on sea and land ana al
| the same time be highly important In the
| making of weather predictions.
These subjects will be dealt with by
two committees, one on maritime
weather signals and the other on
weather marine telegraphy. The hrst
committee is composed OF Or. W. n.
Shaw, director of the British meteoro-
| logical Office; Prof. A. Augat, director
of the central French meteorological
| service; Rev. L. Froc director of the
Zi-ka-wei Observatory at Shanghai.
China; Rear Admiral Hirz, director OF
the Dutch Seewarte, at Hamburg, Ger
many; Prof. H. Mohn, director Nor
wegian Meteorological Institute; Prof.
Willis l.. Moore, and X. Nakamure, di-
rector of the meteorological service OF
Japan. In addition to Messrs. Augat,
will be composed of Lieut.. Gen. Rykat-
chef. director of the Central Physical
Observatory Of st. Petersburg. Russia.
The Proposed Plans.
"One Of the principal problems to be
taken up by the proposed conference,
said Prof. Moore, in discussing the
matter, lis the question of information
al agreement as to the taking of wire
less marine weather reports. The
scheme is to secure the adoption by
I all of the leading nations Of uniform
| method of taking and transmitting
wireless meteorological observations so
that each. observation. no matter by
what nation taken, will be comparable
| with the observations taken by any
other nation. There Is now no uniform
system of receiving and transmitting
marine wireless weather reports and
exactly the same things are not OBJ
! served.
I'VE shall doubtless do all we can,'' con-
tinued Prof. Moore, ITO induce the sew
eral governments to ultimately adopt reg
ulations that will compel ship beyond
certain tonnage to carry wireless lnstru-
ments and operators and to take at noon
Greenwich time a daily observation of the
weather. Observations received by snip
would be transmitted to other ships, so
that by relaying from one vessel to an
other observations from the entire ocean
would then within a few minutes reach
the land and the central meeeorolosicai
offices in the United States. France.
England. Germany and other interest
| ed nations would be able to complete
| these observations each in its proper geo
graphic position and thus determine
the location Of storms and forecast their
future direction. Such forecasts could be
distributed to the vessels In the same
manner in which the observations on
which the forecast were based, were col
| lected." Prof. Moore added that he in
! tended, as a member of the committee
having this matter in charge. to argue
| for just such regulations
Where the Nations Differ.
| While American vessels use flags by day
and lights by night to convey storm
warnings other nations use signals that
| are made up of a combination of cones
and cylinders. The proposition now is to
come to an International agreement for
the use Of uniform signal and code to
display storm signal warnings.
1t is explained that at present the ves-
sells Of different nations use different sig
nals which are confusing to mariners, but
| If there were displayed a combination of
one code and one form, mariners of all
nations would soon familiarize themselves
with the code and with the forms. and.
even though they could not understand
| the message in which the weather warm
ing was conveyed. they would readily un-
| derstand the signal