Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1878 — Value of Government Signal Service. [ARTICLE]

Value of Government Signal Service.

The system of danger signals, adopted by the United States Government, has proved of great benefit to shipping. All along the coasts are stations, at which plainly visible signals are displayed, to warn ship Captains of approaching storms. The reports of observers at the stations are required to give all instances in which vessels have remained in port on account of official warnings given. In these cases danger is avoided, and statistics show that disasters to shipping have been considerably fewer since the introduction of the cautionary signals. The agricultural interests of the country also have been greatly benefited by the daily bulletins sent to every farming district in the land by the Weather Department. These bulletins are made from telegraphic reports received at appointed centers of distribution, where they are at once printed, placed in envelones, and addressed to designated postoffices in the district to be supplied. Each Postmaster receiving a bulletin has the order of the Postmaster General to display it instantly in a frame furnished for the purpose.

The bulletins reach the different offices, and are displayed in the frames, on an average, at 11 o’clock in the morning, making about ten hours from the time the report first left the chief signal officers until it appeared placarded at every center of the farming populations, and became accessible to all classes even in the most distant parts of the country. The information given on these bulletins has been found especially valuable to those farmers who take an interest in the study of meteorology, or the science of weather, and the facts announced are so plain that any intelligent person may profit by them. For instance, each bulletin now announces, for its particular district, what winds in each month have been found most likely and what feast likely to De followed by rain. Attention given to this one simple piece of information will result in increasing the gains and reducing the losses of harvesting.

Warnings of expected rises or falls in the great rivers are made with equal regularity, telegraphed, bulletined in frames, and also published by the newspapers, at the different river cities. These daily reports give the depths of wat< r at different points in the rivers’ courses, and thus make it easy for river shipping to be moored safely in anticipation of low water, when ignorance might lead to the grounding of the boats on sand-bars or mud-banks. The notices of the probable heights which freshets may reach are followed by preparations upon the “levees” and river-banks, to guard against overflows. —James H. Flint, in St. Nicholas for July.