The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1911-10-30
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HI" HL"0 VI sIoiIhph'
Talk With the Father Of the
Weather Bureau.
General Albert J. Mysr, Discussing
That Service In 1871, Seemed
to Have Some intuition Of
Coming Of ~Wlreless." n
By z. ). EDWARDS.

Ouc OF the most LdAluu6 events /
connected with Sherman's struggle for
Atlanta in 1854 occurred at Allatoona.
Ca. when the small Federal garrison
there was doomed apparently 10 fall
into the hands of a division Of tho
Confederate army, sent against It by
Hood But at the last moment. by
means Of the system Of flag signals
which he had invented before the war.
when he was an assistant surgeon in
the regular army. Brlgadier-G eneral
Albert ]. Myer, then in command OF
the signal service corps of the Union
armies. wcs able to summon from
General Sherman the assistance that
saved the garrison. Il was during
this interchange Of signals that Sher-
man sent the celebrated message that
became the theme Of one Of the great
gospel hymns of the world: Hold the
fort; for ! am coming"
The year after the civil war was
over General Myer was made chief
signal officer Of the regular army.
Four years after. when congress had
authorized the secretary OF war to
provide for the observation and pre-
dietion OF storms the oficial begin
ming Of the Federal weather bureau
General Myer was placed in charge Of
this work, and SO became the coun-
trys first official weather prophet.
day or two after the meeting OF
congress in December. 1871, met
General Myer by appointment in his
office in Washington, and told him
that had been sent by some citizens
Of New Haven Conn, to say to him
that If It would be possible for him
to establish a weather bureau station
m New Haven, a convenient and other
wise suitable home for the bureau
would be furnished rent free by the
owner Of one Of the city's largest
buildings.
IF ! had the money | would like to
establish weather bureau in every
considerable city on the Atlantic and
Gulf coasts" replied the general "At
present however, I am only author
zed to establish twentyfour stations
and I am going to make the money
90 as far as ! can in the establish
nent Of stations along our Great
Lakes. want sufficient number OF
stations from Duluth. on Lake Supe
nor. to Clayton, on Lake Ontario"
/ asked General sMyer what special
reason there was for thus seeming to
.aVor the lakes. fd
"A special reason7" he replied with
energy. while his eyes-so full Of fire
and yet SO seIf-contained that they
withdrew all OF ones attention from
ais other striking facial characters
.ics--looked intently at me- "The
very best of all reasons. 1t was while
[ was living in Buffalo, where I set
led after the close OF the war. that
.ook up the study Of the storms which
sweep the Great Lakes and have
caused awful devastation thereon. I
discovered that almost all Of the dan.
yerous storms for lake navigation are
developed somewhere in the north,
Est and then come careering with
increasing fury across tho lakes. ulti-
nately to disappear in the valley Of
St. Lawrence. Then. one day, It oc-
surred to me that If we could estab-
ish telegraph stations along the lakes
whose business it would be to give
warming Of the approach of storms
we could probably reduce the dangers
( 20 lake navigation to a minimum. as
TAR as storms were concerned.
well. out Of that idea has come
his recently organized weather bu
reau. It has already demonstrated its
lsefulness; with a complete system Of
storm stations along the Great Lakes
! am sure that 1t will provs itself a
necessity to the country. And when
hat has been done. then there will
speedily be weather stations all over
he country
7 am sure, too" continued General
Myer. that ultimately this service is
some day going to give the country
perfect weather service. OF course
perfect weather service means that
we must know what the weather con
ditions are far out upon the oceans
that bound Us. but the more have
thought about the matter. the more
am persuaded that some day some
means viii be devised BY means O
which almost instant communication
from midocean with the mainland ma,
be secured It must be overhead
communication. for you cannot tai
the ocean cable so as to send reports
Of weather conditions from the deep
There are atmospheric conditions owe
the ocean which. am sure viii We
be utilized for the conveyance OF III
telligence, and when that discovery 1
made we win have taken a long ste
in the direction of securing a perfec
weather earvice =,
Years later came Marconi with hi
invention BY means OF which II
Hertzian electric waves are utilize
for the transmission Of intelligenc
from midocean to land; and / hav
often thought that General Myer. tn
creator Of, our weather bureau system
must have had some dim. prophet
intuition that told him OF the comm
Of this achievement.
Copyright, 1911. by e. J. Edwards. A
Rights Reserved.)