Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1881 — THE SIGNAL SERVICE. [ARTICLE]

THE SIGNAL SERVICE.

Report of Chief Hazen, The report of Gen. W. B. Hazen, Chief Signal Officer, contains many matters of interest, among which the following may be noticed; “ I have endeavored,” he says, “to bring this service into active sympathy and co-operation with the ablest scientific intellects of the country. In this direction and in response tc my request, the National Academy of Sciences has appointed an advisory committee of consulting specialists with which I may confer as occasion demands. I take pleasure in acknowledging this courtesy as showing the establishment of more intimate relations between the scientific interests of the United States and the Signal Service. “This year has been distinguished by additional progress aud by decided improvement, which I will briefly recite : The establishment, under your sanction, of a permanent school of instruction at Fort Myer, Va.; the raising of the standard of the personnel of the Signal Corps ; the systemization of the duties of the signal service ; the preparation of new instructions for observers of the service ; the preparation of new and improved forma for the recording and preservation of meteorological data ; the preparation of special bulletins for the press, containing weather information of public interest; the forecasts of weather, of not or cold waves for periods exceeding twenty-four hours ; the forecasts of “ northers ’ for the interior plateau ; the adoption of a new storm-signal (the cautionary Northwest) for the interior lakes ; the arrangement for the increase of river service, and wider publications of warnings of floods or ice-gorges ; the changes and improvements in the publication of the international bulletin and the monthly weather review, with their accompanying chartsj4he increased information added to the tenners’ aud to the railway bulletins; the organization of a service for the special benefit of the cotton interests of the South; the extension of special frost-warn-ing to the fruit interests of the country; the investigation into thermometric standards and into barometric standards; the preparation of new hygrometric tables containing correction for altitude; the revised determinations of the altitudes of signal-service stations; the computatfoh'of monthly constants for the reduction of observed barometric pressures to sea level; the arrangements for original investigation in atmospheric electricity, in anemometry and in actinometry, and in the last subject, especially With reference to the importance of solar radiation in agriculture and the absorption of the sun’s heat by the atmosphere ; the co-operation in an expedition to the summit of Mount Whitney, Cal., for the determination of problems in solar physics; in metrology, the preparation of conversion tables for the English and metric systems ; the co-operation in the dropping of time-balls at signal-service stations ; the publication in quarto form of special professional papers; the offering of prizes for essays of great merit on meteorological subjects ; the organization of State weather services ; the new investigation of danger-lines on Western rivers ; the organization and equipment of two expeditions for meteorological observation and research in the Arctic regions of America, one to be stationed at Lady Franklin bay, the other at Point Barrow, Alaska, both co-operating in this work with a system of stations established in the Polar’ region by international conference ; the establishment of a system of stations of observation in Alaska. “A series of experiments has been made with sun-flashes, with a view of improving upon the forms of heliograph to be adopted for the general uses of the army, and it is believed that the improved heliograph selected combines great simplicity with efficiency, and possesses many practical advantages, so far as known, over similar instruments in other services. . “During the past year stations of observation on the habits and ravages of the Rocky Mountain locusts or grasshoppers were established in those sections that the experience of past years has shown to be most exposed to the ravages of these pests. These stations were at Omaha, Grand Island, North Platte and Sidney, Neb.; Cheyenne, W. T.; Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo, CoL; Fort Sill, I. T.; Fort Elliott and all other stations on the United States military telegraph lines in Northern, Central and Southern Texas, and those on the northwestern military telegraph line in Dakota and Montana. Where civilians were employed in making the observations their services were voluntary and without compensation, the Government bearing the necessary expenses for stationery and telegraphing. “It is gratifying to state that not a single report of the ravages of locusts has reached this office, and their presence has been announced only at Grand Island, Neb., Fort Supply, L T., and Fort Elliott, Tex.; but in no instance has any danger been reported. “ This year, for the first time, the Chief Signal Officer has caused to be prepared and issued, twice daily, special bulletins for the press containing meteorological information of popular interest to a greater extent than can appear, for want of space, in the official synopses and indications. They treat especially of high winds, severe storms, tornadoes, heavy rainfalls, floods, extreme temperatures, sudden and great changes in temperature, frosts, temperatures specially reported from health resort 4 during the season when frequented, and, when the conditions sufficiently warrant, fair or rainy weather, as the case may be, predicted for two days in advance. There are also forecasted the movements of the so-called ‘warm waves ’ and ‘ cold waves.’

“In addition, the Chief Signal Officer causes to be regularly made, daily, each morning, by all officers who are liable for detail in the Indications Division, forecasts or deductions of the weather conditions for the day succeeding that on which the forecasts are made. If the result of these studies is sufficiently successful, indications will, in time, be issued for all districts for periods of more than one day. “ The river reports, giving the average depth of water and notices of the dangerous rises in the different great rivers of the interior, foi the benefit of the river commerce and the populations in the river valleys, have been regularly made, telegraphed, bulletined in frames, and also published by the press at the different river porta and citica “The manner in which these reports are prepared and used, and the mode by which a ‘danger-line ’ has been determined, with water below which there is considered to be no danger, while every rise above it is dangerous, have been sufficiently explained in preceding reports. “ The information published in reference to this danger-line, in connection with the daily reports of this office, has, on the occurrence of river floods, enabled those interested to judge of the probable limits of the rises of water to be expected at the different places on the river banks and of the dangers to be anticipated. Tbirkuowledge has made possible necessary precautions for safety.’’