Evening journal., 1911-06-20
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
A Talk With the Father Of
the Weather Bureau
BY @HoIland."


One Of the most thrilling events con-
nected with Sherman's struggle for At
lanta in 1864 occurred at Atlanta,
Ga. when the small Federal garrison
there was doomed apparently to fall
into the hands of a division OF the
Confederate army, sent against II 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, Brigadier-General
Albert j. Myer, then in command Of
the signal service corps of the Union
armies, was able to summon from Cen
eral Sherman the assistance that saved
the garrison. II was during this in
terchange OF signals that Sherman
sent the celebrated message that be-
came the theme of one of the great
gosped hymns Of the world. Hold the
fort. for I am coming
The year after the Civil War was
over General Myer was made chief sig
nal officer of the regular army. Four
years later when Congress had au-
thorized the Secretary OF War to pro-
vide for the observation and predic-
tion of storms-the official beginning
Of the federal weather bureau-Gen-
eral Myer was placed in charge Of this
work, and so became the country's first
official weather prophet
A 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 in
New Haven, a convenient and other
wise suitable home for the bureau
would be furnished rent free by the
owner of one of the citys largest
buildings.
"If had the money / would like to
establish a weather bureau in every
considerable city on the Atlantic and
Gulf Coasts replied the General. At
present however I am only authorized
TO establish twenty-four stations. and
/ am going to make the money go as
far as I can in the establishment Of
stations along our Great Lakes. want
sufficient number Of stations from
Duluth, on Lake Superior, to Clayton.
on Lake Ontario.
I asked General Myer what special
reason there was for thus seeming to
favor the lakes.
"A special reason?" he replied with
energy, while his eyes-so full of fire
and yet so self-contained that they
withdrew all of ones attention from
his other striking facial character
ietics-looked intently at me "The
very best of all reasons. II was while
I was living in Buffalo, where ] set
tied after the close of the war, that
| took up the study of the storms
which sweep the Great Lakes and have
caused such awful devastation thereon.
| discovered that almost all of the
dangerous storms for lake navigation
are developed somewhere in the north
west and then come careering with in
creasing fury across the lakes, ulti-
mately 10 disappear in the valley Of the
St. Lawrence Then. one day, It occur
red TO me that if we could establish
telegraph stations along the lakes.
whose business II would be to give
warning of the approach Of storms,
we could probably reduce the dangers
to lake navigation to a minimum, as
far as storms were concerned.
We'll cut Of that idea has come this
recently organized weather bureau. It
has already demonstrated its useful
ness; with a complete system Of storm
stations along the Great Lakes I am
sure that il will prove itself a neces-
sity to the country. And when that has
been done, then there will speedily be
weather stations all over the country.
81 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 I have
thought about the matter, the more
am persuaded that some day some
means viii be devised by means of
which almost instant communication
from midocean with the mainland may
be secured. II must be overhead COM
munication. for you cannot tap the
ocean cable so as 10 send reprots of
weather conditions from the deep
There are atmospheric conditions over
the ocean which. ! am sure, will yet be
utilized for the conveyance Of intel
ligence, and when that discovery isl
made we'will have taken a long step in
the direction of securing a perfect
weather service"
Years later came Marconi with his
Invention by means of which the Hert-
zian electric waves are utilized for
the transmission Of intelligence from
midocean to land; and / have often
thought that General Myer. the creator
Of our weather bureau system, must
have bad some dim. prophetic intui-
ton that told him Of the coming of this
achievement.
Copyright. 1911. by r. ] Edwards. All
rights reserved)
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