Evening star., 1933-02-26

The science Of meteorology, the most
important branch Of which Is weather
forecasting, claims Is its modern founder.
Cleveland Able. When. as director
Of the Cincinnati Observatory. he vol
unteered to furnish the Chamber OF
Commerce Of that city with daily
weather forecasts. the plan was charac-
terized as "mheard Of" Scientists
either frow-ed or laughed. The sue
cess Of Prof. Abbe's forecasts resulted
In the founding Of the United States
Weather Bureau, the first In the mod
ern world. That was in 1858. To-day
all nations Of importance have such bu-
reaus. based on the American plan. and
weather observation Is the focus Of SCI
entific interest the world over.
When expeditions 60 into the Arctic
or Antarctic, into deserts or to mountain
tops, one Of the principal purposes Is
the gathering Of meteorological data.
Prof. Abbes "unheard Of" scientific in
spiration Dow grips the worlds atten-
ton. Nothing else affects all mankind
SO profoundly as weather, because 1t Is
weather ara climate that make human
life possible or impossible on various
sections of the globe. That. perhaps, is
why people are alwaye talking about It.
Prof. Able lived. until 1916! Perhaps no
other scientist ever saw his idea more
thoroughly espoused In his own lifetime.
The term modern meteorology" Is
employed in relation to Prof. Abbes
discoveries because, In all probability,
the ancient Egyptians and possibly the
people Of india and China had devel-
oped systems Of weather prediction and
study. There are indications that they
had done So but their findings were 50
completely lost that PROF. Abbe may be
regarded as the founder Of the modern
science.
While the United States Weather
Bureau employs some Of the leading
savants of the world as its scientists, q
large amount of the data assembled
and used for the benefit Of the world Is
assembled by the cooperative observers.
and standing high among them are
the American farmers.
Endless Routine.
The Weather Bureau service covers
the entire country. It has thousands
Of cooperative observers stationed at
important places. They receive no COM
pensation, but are volunteers who are
Interested wholly from the scientific
point Of view or who-if they are farm
ers-realize that In helping to procure
accurate weather data they are for
warding their own interests, because
farming success depends to some extent
on accurate weather information.
The chief value of weather records
lies in their continuity-an unbroken
record. Meteorologists have learned
that weather conditions are governed
by cycles. But these cycles cover long
periods Of years. The shortest one Is
about 16 years and there Is one Of much
importance which extends over . CEN
tury.
Obviously. q weather record for q
given locality Is worse than useless II 1t
is not regularly and accurately kept.
It Is worse than useless because its In
accuracies would tend to throw calcula-
tions out Of order. Wrong observations
might well upset . whole series.
The country is divided up by the
Weather Bureau into q large number
Of sections and each has q section di-
rector. This director Is In charge of
the local observations Of the region. To
his office are sent the reports Of the
scores Of even more locally situated
cooperative or volunteer weather OBJ
servers. The reports are combined and