Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-01-04
GOLD MEDAL FOR AMERICAN
Professor Able Of Washington First
to Make Weather Reporting
PrOAtable-WOrk known
Everywhere.

Tn. announcement from London that
the Royal Meteorological society Of Eng
land will present Prof. Cleveland Able
of the United States weather bureau at
Washington with gold medal in honor
of his achievements in the world of
meteorological science. is merited
tribute to the man who has earned the
title of the father of scientific weather
reports" SAYS A. Maurice Low in the
Boston Globe.
Picture to yourself a mild-mannered
man of medium size. with gray hair and
beard and pair of gray eyes rather
email that beam at YOU from behind
Gold-rimmed spectacles with shy yet
penetrating gaze. a modest man. modest
to the point of diffidence. with soft.
deprecatory voice, and YOU will have
Professor Able, To see him properly
ono must call on him at his small work
shop in the United States weather bu-
reau, for there he is at his best
The absolute simplicity # that office
is what first strikes the visitor. It Is
almost destitute OF furniture There is
a desk, one chair ana one leather-cov-
cred stool. Then there are book shelves
filled with weather bureau reports
weather bureau maps and charts. show
ing where the wind goes when it does
not blow and other mysterious things
not easily understood by the lay mind
CAN TRACE STORM ANYWHERE.
Ask Professor Able what they mean
and he will smile his shy smile and say
in his mild voice:
They are the result of scientific study
III takes long time II no IN,
of thoroughly understanding them We
work them out and they do good bu,
they do not create sensations. Now We
can trace a storm all over the world
We used to have to depend on reports
from land only, but now We get wireless
| reports from vessels at sea and we can
make storm map OF the whole world
one has to study these things.
Then Professor Able will relapse into q
nervous, embarrassed silence from which
II Is difficult to draw him lie will admit
In answer to direct questioning, that he
MAS been at work in the weather bureau
, for ~ years. that he started To he an as.
tronomer but drifted into the specla
study of meteoroogy because he under.
| took to make weather reports in .Cincin-
natl in lS6s and was forced to figure or
| local meteorological conditions IL order Il
make his weather forecasts accurate Ir
Cincinnati he made a reputation that
! caused the government to engage hi.
| services, and since 1870 he has been il
Washington.
Professor Able was born in New York
| and was educated at the New York publ,
| schools and at the College of the city O
New York He took up astronomy anC
! soon learned all he could at the New Yorl
college, Theu no went to the universit,
| OF Michigan at Ann Arbor After he hat
got all he coc!i there he returned Eas
and entered Harvard
HAD FAMOUS ASSOCIATES
| From 1860 to 1854 Professor Able pur
sued his studies At Harvard With hin
there were DR.. Simon Newcomb and DR.
b. A. Goud. both of whom became ia
NOUS In scientific circles. All this time III
was working in the employ OF the Unite,
States coast survey.
| 'one cannot earn astronomy or an.
| other science from books" remarked Pro
| fessor Able, ms he was telling the Glob
correspondent OF his experience at vari