Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-10-29
WEATHER BUREAU
At HOME
IN WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON. D. C., Oct. 2S.-Pro-
fessor Cleveland Able the father of
the weather bureau" died here today
after an illness of year.
The present day system of daily
weather forecasts, with which every
portion Of the United States, however
remote, is now thoroughly familiar is
the outgrowth of neutrality-suspicious.
service which Clevelsld Abbe estab-
llshed locally in Cincinnati, O.. when
ne wss the director of the observatory
there, in 1862 The death of this
famous meteoroligist recalls some in
teresting details of this early history
OF weather forecasts.
The son of New York merchant.
and born December 3, 1883, Cleveland
Able became an instructor in mathe-
matics and astronomy at the Univers-
lty OF Michigan in 1860, and during
the Civil War period he was an aide
al Cambridge, Mass, to DIR. B. A.
Gould, then astronomer of the United
States Coast Survey The years 1866
66 he spent in Russia at the Imperial
Observatory as guest of the resident
staff of observers there and on his re-
turn to the United States he was chos-
en- director of the Cincinnati Obserya-
tory.
Tho Daily Predictions.
In beginning his astronomical work
at Cincinnati in May, 1868, Prof Able
expressed to the Chamber of Com
merce of that city his willingness to
make daily predictions of the weather
for the benefit of the citizens. His
proposition was accepted and the
work actually begun in September,
1863, by the publication of a daily
bulletin of weather, kilograms and
probabilities.
The success of the scheme led some
OF his friends to introduce q resolution
calling upon congress to establish a
national bureau of storm Mornings for
the benefit of commerce. The bureau
was established by joint resolution of
February 4, 1870, and its conduct was
entrusted to General A. J. Myer, then
chief signal officer of the army. He
adopted into his weather bureau all
the important features of Prof Abbe's
work at Cincinnati and, in January
1871, invited him to come to Washing
ton as his scientific assistant.
The regular tri-daily issue of prob
abilities" began in February. 1871,
and was kept up by Prof Able until
others could be trained for this SER
vice These forecasts were publish
ed throughout the country annonyom-
ously as official documents, and the
cognomen of "Old Prob which had
been invented in Cincinnati, was soon
widely applied to their author.
From that time on the weather SER
vice extended yearly until the Unuited
States bureau came to rank first
among such services in the world, and
Prof Able himself came to be known
as one of the worlds foremost meteor
ologists. 1t was largely due to his in
itiative that the several successive adj
vances in the service, such as ocean
meterology, the prediction of floods in
rivers, the publication of the monthly
weather review, the adoption of civil
service examinations in meterology,
the introduction of uniform standard
time, and innumerable other steps,
were taken.
Even when past 70 years of age,
Prof. Able continued in the govern
ment weather service to edit the
Monthly Weather Review and make
other contributions to meteorological
science. He was the recipient of
gold medal from the Royal Meterolog-
ical Society of England, member OF
the National Academy of Science and
numberous foreign and American
scientific bodies.