MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW Editor, ALFRED J. HENRY
VOL. 59, No. 1
W. B. No. 1036 JANUARY, 1931 CLOSED MARCH 3, 1931 ISSUED MARCH 31. 1931
THE EVOLUTION OF METEOROLOGICAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
By ERIC R. MILLER
[Weather Bureau, Madison. Wk.1
The object of this paper is to outline the stages in the growth of the organizations that have dealt with climate and weather in the United States of America and to
present a chronological bibliography. It should be noted that there has been mutual reaction
3 the growing institutions and the growing science of
meteorology. The invention of the electric telegraph, after institutions and science were well founded, acted as
a powerful catalyst, enabling the science to be effectively applied to the forecasting of storms and weather.
*The settlement of the continent, gradually pushing the frontier westward, widened the field of observation. The Civil War marks an important turning point, from financial stringency to post-war inflation, which accounts for the diffusion of meteorological work among many institutions where it was scantily supported by eking out small sums from budgets intended for other purposes,
before the war, and then afterward the quick develop- ment of a single relatively lavishly supplied institution.
Sir Napier Yhaw (68, p. 1) argues that the change from
horseback and stage coach to railways and from sctiling
vessels to steamers, as well as improvements in dwellings and clothing, caused people to lose interest in weather and to relegate it to institutions. On the other hand, is it not true that the size of atmospheric phenomena bars them from the scope of individuals, and even of institu- tions, like universities, that lack country-wide extent?
1753: In colonial times the only country-wide organ-
ization was the Post Office. Benjamin Franklin, ap- pointed Postmaster-General of the Colonies, 1753, used his contacts with postmasters and shipmasters for re- search on progression of cyclones, and ocean currents
(47, pp. 488490), but his manner of publication nearly cost h m all credit (58).
On April 2, 1814, amidst the war of 1812, James Tilton
(1745-1822), revolutionary patriot, member of the Con-
tinental Congress, then Physician and Surgeon-General of the Army, directed hospital surgeons to record the weather (49j), (1). This was forgotten in the larger development of meteorological work that followed reorganization of the Army, April 14, 1818, by Secretary
of War Calhoun, for whom the credit was claimed (27).
The several chiefs of the Army Medical Department, who directed its meteorological service, were (57) :
1813-1815. James Tilton, M. D. Physician and Surgeon-General. 1818-1836. Joseph Lovell, M. D., Surgeon-General.
1836-1861. Col. Thomas Lawson, M. D., Surgeon- General.
1861-1862. Col. C. A. Finley, M. D., Surgeon-General.
1862-1864. Brig. Gen. W. A. Hammond, M. D., Surgeon-General.
1864-1882. Brig. Gen. J. K. Barnes, M. D., Surgeon- General.
43903-31-1
.. * The Army Medical observations are especially valuable
because they are the earliest available in the West. Long series of records were kept at a few fixed stations, but many posts were occupied for only a few years until the advance of the frontier carried them westward again.
The meteorological organizat,ion terminated June 19, 1874, after which post surgeons sent their meteorological reports direct to the Signal Service and Weather Bureau. The results were published in four volumes (2), (8), (21),
(22), and these were the basis of the climatologies of Forry (12) and Blodget (25).
The Surgeon-General’s office cooperated with Espy’s service, with the Smithsonian even to changing instru- ments and hours of observation (16, 1849, p. 14), with Paine in starting the meteorological worli of the Signal Service (32), and with Myer in organizing that work
(33, 1870).
1817 : Josiah Meigs (1757-1822), Commissioner of the
General Land Office, Interior Department (previously lawyer in Bermuda defending American vessels captured by privateers, professor of natural philosophy at Yale, acting president University of Georgia), asked money from Congress to equip land offices with barometers, etc.
(46), (49g). Denied this aid, his bureau undertook a modest program of observations. The results, deposited with Meigs’ papers in the American Institute of New York City, were placed in the New Pork Public Library,
October, 1928.
1817: Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes (1777-1834), Ger- man meteorologist and mathematician, drew weather maps, invented isobars (1820), (isotherms had already been invented by Humboldt (68, pp. 260-261,298)), dis- covered cyclonic wind circulation, rediscovered progres- sion of cyclones, and proposed a meteorological service
for the study of storms (59 pp. 45-51), (68, p. 299), thua antedating many later claimants for these honors.
1825 : Simeon DeWitt (1756-1834), Vice Chancellor of the University of the State of New York, previously Chief Topographic Engineer on Staff of General Wash- ington in Revolution, also Surve or General of New York,
meteorological observations at the Academies operated throughout the state by the Regents. Results were pub-
lished in two volumes (23), (36), design and exposure of instruments studied. Joseph Henry (39), (52c) and James H. Coffin (52a) were trained in the New York service. Cooperated with Smithsonian from 1849 (16,
1849, p. 14). Appropriations ceased, 1863, and service
mostly discontinued, on account of the Civil War.
1828: Heinrich Wilhelm Dove (1803-1879) and William C. Redfield (1789-1857) started debate on theory of
tropical cyclones that afterward involved Espy and
Loomis and led to important advances (44), (68, p. 296).
procured a grant from the state 9 egislature, and organized
1
2 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW JANUARY, 1931
1834: James Pollard Espy (1785-1860)) (52b), chair- man of a joint committee of the American Philosophical Society and the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, estab- lished a net of observation stations to study storms. Four reports (3), (31) and numerous climatic tables were published. A weather map of the storm of June 19,1836,
in third report, based on observations at 18 stations scat- tered from Massachusetts to Ohio, shows the storm by wind directions only. The storm of March 16, 17, 18, 1838, in the fourth report, represented by a weather map
based on observations at 50 stations covering the states east of the Mississippi, is shown by wind arrows, weather, and barometer readings, entered at each station, and by
circles drawn around the centers of lowest pressure, at 12-hour intervals. The committee obtained an appropriation of $4,000 from the Pennsylvania legislature (Laws of Pennsylvania, 1837, p. 73) to equip an observer in each county with barometer, thermometers, and rain gage. This quota of one observer per county, set up in 1837 as a gonl.to be attained, now stands as a limit that it is prohibited to exceed, act of August 30, 1890 (26 Stat. 371, 398.) April 20, 1838; The first appearance of meteorology in the records of Congress is a memorial from the Pennsyl- vania Lyceum, instigated by Espy’s committee, asking a national weather service (4).
December 18, 1838, Espy himself asked the Senate to offer awards in proportion to the result for rainmaking by burning woodlands (5).
December 20, 1839, the American Philosophical Society transmitted the request of the Royal Society, London, for cooperation with James Clark ROSS’S Antarctic Expe- dition by establishing five meteorological and magnetic observatories (6). John Quincy Adams (37, v. 10, pp. 211, 306), to whose committee this was referred, tried to attach these abservatories to the survey of the north- eastern boundary, but was voted down (7). Philadel- phians supplied one observatory, a t Girard College, with aid from the Topographical Engineers, United States Army (17).
1840: Elias Loomis (1811-1889)) professor of mathe- matics and natural philosophy, Western Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio, published an important paper on storms
(9) in which progressive movement wds shown by mapping the trough line on successive days, a method afterward adhered to by Espy (16 1859, pp. 108-111). A second paper (13) shows the storm by isobars and isotheims, essentially as in present-day weather maps. Inasmuch as Brandes described but did not publish his isobaric maps of 1820, Loomis is entitled to great credit (45), (59), (68).
1840: Espy visited England and France to present memoirs to the British Association for the Advancement
of Science and the French Academy of Sciences (lo), where Arago, in his speech of introduction, bracketed Espy with Ampere and Newton. 1841: Espy’s Philosophy of Storms (11) published, bringing convection and thermodynamics of moist air into meteorological science with their proper weight. January 6, 1842: Espy appeared in Washington, de- termined to make a place for himself as national mete- orologist. J. A. Adams, chairman of the Congressional committee on the Smithson bequest, records the interview in which Espy sought to have that bequest devoted to a national weather service with Espy as chief (37, v. 10, p. 65, v. 11, p. 52). Espy approached other influential politicians and secured a place as Professor of Mathe- matics, Depot of Charts, Navy Department (the germ of the present Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office) which he held from May 7, 1842 to July 5, 1845,
and another as clerk at $2,000 per annum in the Surgeon General’s office beginning August 26, 1842. The item of $3,000 for meteorological work inserted by Senator Preston, of South Carolina, in the Army Bill (Act of August 23, 1842) had not created a position, hence Espy was soon attacked by watchdogs of the Treasury (56))
pp. 507-51 1, but Espy enlisted powerful friends, including John Q. Adams, Jefl‘erson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens
(40)) (61, p. 45), (33, 1883, pp. 586-588), whose tactics of inserting a rider In one appropriation bill after another, Army, Civil and Diplomatic, Naval, Legislative, Execu- tive and Judicial, sufficed to afford him a salary of $2,000 every year until June 30, 1859 (56, p. SOS), although Senator Pearce, of Maryland, was obliged to threaten a filibuster in the closing hours of the session to get i t through on one occasion, and i t was forgotten and the
fiscal year 184748 not covered until 1852. Espy also applied his linowledge of air currents to the invention of a ventilator, wlJch the Twenty-ninth Congress had him install on the chambers of both houses at not to exceed $250 each, and a relief b$ to pay him $10,000 for the use of his ventilators on naval vessels appeared session after session. Espy expanded the observing net that he had organ- ized at Philadelphia in 1834 to a corps of 110 in 1842 and 1843, 50 having barometers. Increase A. Lapham became Espy’s observer a t Milwaukee, and his papers show daily observations tabulated on printed forms, rnailed a t the end of each month. These were addressed to the Surgeon General’s ofice until August, 1849, afterward to the Navy Department. The printed forms of the Smithsoninn were used beginning 1853. Espy and assistant, paid from his $2,000, extracted data, plotted them on daily weather maps, and returned the reports to
the observers. Selected maps, graphs of the march of the barometer, and generalizations of the laws of storms, afforded material for four reports (14), (20)) (26), the last of which had the distinction of being submitted to Congress as a Presidential message. Espy and Henry had been fellow members of the Ameri- can Philosophical Society a t Philadelphia and came into close relations after Henry came to Washington as Secre-
tary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. Espy and Loonlis wrote letters in support of the meteorological part of Henry’s program for the Institution (18); Espy signed with Henry a joint circular soliciting observers (16,
1851, p. 68); Espy enjoyed laborat,ory facilities a t the Smithsonian (26). On the other hand, Henry procured an order from the Secretary of the Navy directing Espy to cooperate with the Smithsonian (16, 1848, p. 29) and clrtinis that Espy was directed to apply to him for instruc- tions (16, 1849, p. 14)) and he was much interested in Espy’s appropiiation (16, 1849, p. 14)) (56). However, the tenor of Espy’s reports and of Bsche’s eulogy on Espy (16, 1859, p. 108-111) indicate that Espy attached little
importance to such restrictions. The claim of Assistant Secretary Goode that “the memoirs of Professor James
P. Espy on meteorology * * * were all prepared as
part of the Smithsonian meteorological work” (54, p. 496) is discounted by the reports themselves. The first report was published and the material of the second and third, was gathered before the Smithsonian was organized. Espy’s generalizations supplied one of the arguments for the memorial of Lapham (32) that finally resulted in the establishment of a national weather service
10 years after Espy’s death. July 1, 1842, Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873) was assigned to charge of the Depot of Charts (Depot of Charts, 1830-1844; Naval or National Observatory,
J ~W A E Y , 193 1 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 3
1844-1854; Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office,
1854-1866; Hydrographic Office separated, 1866) (49b),
and began to collect and summaiize ship’s log-books, ((Wind and Current Charts,” published beginning 1846;
organized International Marine Meteorological Collfer- ence, Brussels, 1853 ; published “Physical Geography of the Sea,” first edition, 1854, fifteenth, 1874; proposed to collect weather observations from farmers as he had from sailors, and Senator Harlan introduced a bill to enable
him to do so, 18561(24). Maury’sIwind and current charts enabled merchant sailing vessels to shorten voyages and were highly appreciated by merchants and under- writers. Those of New York City presented him a
$5,000 silver service, 1853, and foreign potentates showered upon him medals and orders of nobility. He was elected
to 45 learned societies, 20 foreign. He was not appre- ciated by his superior officials, who sought to retire him. He resigned, 1861, to throw in his lot with the Confederacy
(431, (691, (70), (71). 1844. Morse and Vail demonstrated electric telegraph
(52e) , Washington-Baltimore, and established first com- mercial line, 1845.
1846. Redfield suggested telegraph for storm warnings,
(15). 1847. First storm warnings, Barbadoes, Carlisle Bay from barometer at Bridgetown (68, p. 297).
1846: Smithsonian Institution (49h, 54, 56) organized under executive direction of Joseph Henry (1799-1878)
(39), pioneer physicist, whose name is now borne by the unit of magnetic induction. He had been in contact with the nieteorological work in New York and a t Philadelphia (56, pp. 212, 257-263). His program for the new Smith- sonian Institution (16, 1847, pp. 6, 13) contemplated climatological observations and telegraphic reports for prediction of weather and storms, but was greatly hamp- ered by meager funds. The Regents appropriated $1,000
for meteorological work a t the end of 1848, and a corps of
150 observers was organized and began reporting 1849.
Their number increased, and they were augmented as
Henry procured the cooperation of the Surgeon General’s hospital surgeons, Espy’s observers in the Navy Depart- ment, the New York Academy observers, and of observers at grammar schools and light houses in Canada. Henry stimulated the beginning of state weather services in Massachusetts (1849)) Maine, Illinois (1S55), Texas
(1858). The number of observers rose to 616 just before the Civil War, and reached 599 agdn in 1869. Suspension of payments by the First National Bank of Washington, in the panic of 1873, tied up the working funds of the Smithsonian and compelled Henry to ask the Signal Service to take over the Smithsonian observers, and this was done February 2,1874 (33,1874, pp. 88-89,286-287).
Henry cooperated with the Commissioner of Patents, then in charge of government work in agriculture, pre- pared reports on the relations of meteorology to agricul- ture in exchange for the franking of observers’ reports and the publication of observations a t Government expense (16, 1855 pp. 26-28), (30). The title of the latter publi- cation is misleading in suggesting that obscrvations were made under the direction of the Patent Office. This co- operation suddenly ceased a t the death of Patent Com- missioner Mason, 1860, (16, 1850, p. 34)) but on creation of the of6ce of Commissioner of Agriculture, 1862, similar relatiow were established (16, 1863, p. 32). Results were published (30), (35). Lorin Blodget, climatologist, was employed to prepare the first (16, 1854, p. 25), but “set up such claims to a personal right of property in it”
(16, 1855 p. 19) that it was taken away and given to
Prof. J. H. Coffin, of La Fayette College (52a), who,
.
followed by his son, performed man valuable services for
umes were prepared by C. A. Schott, of the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
1848: Jones & Co. (John D. Jones, agent, later vice president, and president to 1895, Atlantic Mutual Insur- ance Co., mame underwriters), Merchants Exchange, New York City, advertised ‘(daily and hourly telegraphic meteorological reports” (19). Compare Francis Gd- ton’s Weather Map Company (68, pp. 306-308).
June 14, 1849 : James Glaisher started first telegraphic weather reports for London Daily News (68, p. 302).
August 8, to October 11, 1851: Telegraphic weather maps lithowraphed and sold a t a penny each, a t the Crystal Paface Exhibition, London (59, p. 64), (68, p.
302).
November 14, 1854: Storm in Black Sea, during Cri- mean War, enabled Leverrier, discoverer of the planet Neptune, to procure Emperor Napoleon’s consent for first
national telegraphic weather service, beginning February
17, 1855, in France; extended over Europe, 1857; pub- lished daily bulletin, 1858; issued storm warnings, 1860
(preceded by Buys Ballot in Holland by a few months); published daily isobaric weather maps from 1863 (59))
(68). 1857 : Smithsonian telegraphic weather observations, arranged with presidents of telegraph companies in 1849
(16, 1850, p. 14), begun along lines New York to New Orleans and Washington to Cincinnati (16, 1857, pp. 26,
27). Weather reports published in “Evening Star’) and exhibited to visitors to Smithsonian by hanging pieces of colored card on iron pins fixed in a map (16, 1858, p.
32); later these cards were cut into disks bearing arrows to show wind direction also, and were oriented by hanging
from one of eight holes (16, 1869, p. 50). Compare this device with maps of Brandes, 1820, and Loomis, 1843.
Henry predicted weather for his own use in planning lectures and reported results to a scientific society (28),
(55). These observations were crow-ded off the w e s by war business in 1861, temporarily resumed 1862 (16,1862))
and contemplated again 1867 (16, 1867, p. 28.) Arrival of the French maps and beginning of weather services throughout Europe and in Turkey and India inspired Henry to urge in his annual reports (16, 1865, pp. 56-59)
the establishment of an American national weather service. In spite of the presence of three senators and three repre- sentatives on the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, no action was taken to place Henry’s recom- mendations before Congress (56).
The contributions of the Smithsonian to meteorology were listed by Henry (16, 1871, pp. 43, 57) as follows: Inaugurating the climatological observations which have been in operation upward of 20 years, introduction of improved instruments, publication of extensive series of meteorological tables, reducing and publishing material from all records since the first establishment of the coun- try, showing the practicability of telegraphic weather signals, publishing Arctic observations, publishing special records, memoirs on meteorological subjects, diffusion of knowledge of meteorology through correspondence, urging upon Congress the establishment of a meteorological
the Smithsonian and for meteoro 9 ogy. The later vol-
- department.
1857 : Capt. George Gordon Meade,Superintendent of the Survev of the North and NorthwestLakes. Comsof Tono- graphkal Engineers, United States Army, cbmmanher in chief of the Union army a t the battle of Gettysburg, began meteorological observations at 25 stations on the Great Lakes. Results were published at Detroit and in
reports of the Chief of Engmeers (29), and manuscript
4 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW JANUARY, 1931
records fomarded to the Smithsonian. This service ceased 1872-1876 as the Signal Service extended over the same area. September 1, 1869: Cleveland Abbe (1838-1916), direc- tor of the Cincinnati Astrononlical Observatory, organized daily telegraphic reports from cities in the Middle West, and published a weather map with the support of the Cin- cinnati Chamber of Commerce for three months (34),
afterward a t Abbe’s own espense for six months. hlenn- time, in February, 1870, Manager Armstrong of the Cin- cinnati office of the Western Union Telegraph Co., through whose hands Abbe’s reports were received, started a similar publication, with which Abbe merged his efforts in May; 1870. This later publication, copies of which survive (67, p. 25) and in Lapham papers in \Vis- consin Historical Society, exhibit the weather by discrete symbols and figures for weather, wind direction, and temperature, but no barometer readings, isobars, iso- therms, nor weather predictions. Compare maps of Brandes, 1820, Loomis, 1843, and Paris Observatory,
1863. On July 20, 1869, Abbe and his friends organized a meteorological society, the Western Meteorological Association. 1869: Daniel Draper (1841-) organized the municipal meteorological observatory in Central Park, New Tork City, now operated by the United States Weather Bureau. Draper devised many automatic instruments for the observatory, which have also found use in in-
dust ry . 1869, December 8: Increase A. Lapham (1811-1875), Quaker, philanthropist, naturalist, meteorological ob- cserver for Espy, Smithsonian Institution, Lake Survey, and Abbe, sent a memorial, “Disasters on the Lakes”,
(32), to Gen. Halbert E. Paine, Member of Congress from Lapham’s home district a t Milwaukee. This memorial enunierated the losses of sailors and ships on
the Great Lakes in the stornis of 1868 and 1869, cited Espy’s laws of American storms, and Leverrier ’s suc- cesses in giving warning of European storms. This scientific, humanitarian, m d economic appeal, the solidarity of Congress, then filled with Union officers accustomed to work together, contributed to Paine’s success in procuring the passage of the Act of Congress, February 9, 1870 (16 Stat. 369), directing the Secretary of War to take meteorological observations and give warning of the approach of storms. On February 25, 1870, the Secretary of War assigned this duty to the Chief Signal Officer (33, 1870, p. 16), an office that originated June 37, 1860, when Asst. Surg. Albert J. Myer was appointed Major and Signal Officer to develop
a system of military communication that he had invented
(51). Although he had not held that office continuously, Myer was Chief Signal Officer in 1870 when the nieteoro-
logical work was authorized by Congress, and Paine states (Lapham Papers) that Myer secured its assign- ment to his administration, where it was designated the “Division of telegrams and reports for the benefit of
commerce. ” Sketches of the Signal Service (41), (46),
(52a) and of the Weather Bureau (66) are available, so
that only a few points will be given here. The initial appropriations for meteorological work by
the Signal Service were: Year ending June 30, 1870, $15,000; 1871, $50,000; 1872, $102,451; 1873, $250,000. These figures do not include pay or allowances of officers and enlisted men. The total appropriation exceeded a million dollars in 1884 and 1885, and was mostly expended on meteorological work.
Observations commenced November 1, 1870. The first forecaster was Increase A. Lapham, “assistant to
the Chief Signal Officer,” stationed at Chicago, with . supervision over the signal service on the Lakes until the
close of navigation, 1870, who issued the first storm warning a t noon, November 8, 1870. Lapham drew isobaric maps such as forecasters use to day (33, 1871. pp. 7, 167-172, and 15 charts). In order to enlist state aid in distributing agricultural warnings and to collect agricultural and climatological observations, State Weather Services (49 d, e, 50) were organized from 1883 onward by Lieut. H. H. C. Dun- woody, who had suggested them in 1881 (41). In October 1S95 control of these services passed from the states to the United States Weather Bureau, and with the “voluntary observers” of the Smithsonian net were then merged in the Climate and Crop (now Climatological) Service of the Weather Bureau. Beginning about 1SS4, agitation for conversion of the nieteorological service into a civilian bureau brought a series of bills before Congress. The Act of October 1,
lb90 (26 Stat. 653), introduced by Senator William B. Bate, of Tennessee, effected the transfer to the Depart- ment of Agriculture. The magnitude of the change is best seen by comparing the expenditures of the Signal
Corps before and after the change on June 30,1891: 1891, $753,2S4.70; 1892, $31,697.62. The chiefs of the meteor- ological service, with dates of appointment have been: July 28, 1S66: Biig. Gen. Albert J. Myer (1828-1880). December 15, 1880: Brig. Gen. William B. Hazen - (1830-1887). March 3.1887: Brig. Gen.Adolphus W. Greelv (1844-). July 1,lSSl: Mark-W. Harrington (184&192k).. July 4, 1895: Willis L. Moore (1856-1927). August 4, 1913: Charles F. hlarvin (1858-). Published results are considerably too numerous to mention, but summaries of summanes will be found in Bulletins Q and W of the Weather Bureau and in the Atlas of American Agriculture. The publications of the Signal Service and of the Weather Bureau have been listed (48), (63). 1884-1596 : The New England Meteorological Society, W. M. Davis, secretary, was organized to operate tha state weather service as a unit for New England (42), (53).
I t also functioned as a scientific society, holding meetings, and by cooperative investigation of sea breeze, thunder- storms, etc. Meetings and papers were reported in the American Meteorological Journal, results in Publications of Harvard College Observatory. 1884: Abbott Lawrence Rotch (1861-1921) founded Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, primarily for research on clouds, instruments, and upper air observa- tions with kites and balloons, the latter extended, 1905, to the trade-wind region of the Atlantic in cooperation with
Teisserenc de Bort. Rotch was active in support of the New England Meteorological Society and the American Meteorological Journal. Since 1912 the observatory; bequeathed to Harvard University has been directed by Alexander McAdie, fornier official of the United States Weather Bureau. Among Blue Hill meteorologists are H. H. Clayton, S. P. Fergusson, C. F. Brooks, A. H. Palmer (62, 73). Results published in Annals of Har- rard College Observatory and Publications of Blue Hill Observatory. 1917: The World War brought into existence the Meteorological Section, Signal Corps, United States Army
(64), and the Aerographic Section, United StBtes Navy
(65). 1919: The American Meteorological Society, C.- E”. Brooks, secretary, open to meteorologists throughout North and South America, was organized (72).
JANUARY, 1931 MONTHLY WEATRER REVIEW 5
LITERATURE CITED
. (1) Waterhouse, B. Top0 raphico-medical remarks together with meteorological tables or jiary of the weather made near the headquarters of the 2nd Military Department. Ms. 13 p. 4’. 816. (2) Lovell, J. Meteorological Register for the years 1822-1825. 8’. Washington, 1826. (3) Espy, J. P. Chairman, Reports of the joint committee of the American Philosophical Society and the Franklin Institute on meteorology. Jour. Franklin Inst. v. 16, 1835, pp. 4-6; v. 17, 1836 p. 386; v. 19,1837. p. 17; v. 22, 1838, p. 161.
(Index Cat. Lib. Surg.-Gen. Off. v. 16, p. 150.)
(4) Cong. Doc. Ser. 330, No. 344. (5) Cong. Globe, 25 Cong., 3d sess., pp. 41-42.
(6) Cong. Doc. Ser. 365, No. 86. (7) Cong. Do. Ser. 373, No. 630. (8) Lawson, T. Meteorological register for the years 1826-1830 (including 1822-1825 as supplement). 8’. Philadelphia 1840. (Asst. Surg. Samuel Forry, compiler.) (9) Loomis. E. On the storm which was emerienced throughout the United States about the 20th of DecemGer, 1836. Am.-Phil. SOC. Proc., v. 1, 1840, pp. 195-198. (10) Espy, J. P. Brief outline of the theory of storms. Cong. Rec., 1841, p. 484. (11) Espy, J. P. Philosophy of storms. Boston, 1841. (12) Forrv. S. The climate of the United States and its endemic influence. 3’. New York, 1842. (13) Loomis, E. On two storms which were experienced through- out the United States in the mouth of February, 1843. Trans. Am. Phil. SOC., v. 9, 1843, pp. 161-184.
c (14) Espy, J. P. First report on meteorology, made to the Sur- geon-General U. S. Army. 4 p., 30 ch. f’. Washington, 1843. (15) Am. jour. Sci. & Arts. (16) Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to the Senate and House of Representatives. (Pub- lished yearly for 1846 and ffg. ware.!
(17) Bache, A. D. Observacions at the magnetic and meteoro- logical observatories at the Girard College, Philadelphia. 3 v. Washington, 1847. (18) Espy, J. P. Communication on the subject of meteorology.
(19) Am. Jour. Sci. & Arts. (20) Espy, J. P. Second and Third reports on meteorology. Cong. Doc. Ser. 559, No. 39, 1851. (21) Lawson, T. Meteorological register for the twelve years, 1831-1842. 8’. Washington, 1851. (22) Lawson, T. Army meteorological register for twelve yews, 1843-1854. Washington, 1855. (Compiled by Asst. Surg. R. H. Coolidge and Lorin Blodget.) (23) Hough, F. B. Results of a series of meteorological observs- tions made * * * at sundry academies in the State of New York from 1826 to 1850, inc. (24) Cong. Doc. Ser. 891, No. 292. (25) Blodget, L. Climatology of the United States and of the temperate latitudes of the North American Continent. Phila- dehhia. 1857.
1846, p. 334.
(16) App. 3, pp. 47-48. 1847. Ser. 2, v. 5, 1848, p. 297.
Albany, 1855.
(26) Espy, J. P. Fourth report on meteorology. Cong. Doc.
(27) Jenkins, J. S. The life of John Caldwell Calhoun. Auburn Ser. 889, No. 65. Washington, 1857.
and Rochester, N. Y., 1857. (28) Henry, J. Application of telegraph to prediction of changes of the weather. Proc. Am. Academy of Arts & Sciences, v. 4,
(29) Chief of Engineers, Annual report to the Secretary of War. Meteorological observations by the Lake Survey are printed in the following :
1857-1860, pp. 271-275.
, I
Year
(30) Results of meteorological observations made under direc- tion of the U. S. Patent Office and the Smithsonian Institution, 1854-1859; v. 1, Washington 1861; v. 2, pt. 1, Washington, 1864. (31) Emmerson, G. Part taken by the American Philosophical Sncietv in establishing stations for meteorological observations. .- - _~_.
Proc. hm. Phil. SOC., v. 11, 1869, p. 516.
1431, Doc. 10.
-
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(40) Johnston, R. M., & Bromne, W. H. Life of Alexander H. Stephens. Pliilndelphia, 1884. (41) Hazen, W. B. History of the Signal Service, with catalogue of publications, instruments, and stations. Washington, 1884. (42) The New England Meteorological Society. Am. Met’l Jour., v. 1, pp. 116, 300-305. 1884. (43) Corbin, D. F. M. London, 1888. (44) Bocher, M. The nieteorological labors of Dove, Redfield, and Espy. Am. Met’l. Jour., v. 5, 1889, pp. 1-13. (45) Newton, H. A. Professor Elias Loomis, Am. J. Sci. & Arts, v. 39, €890. pp. 427-455; also Am. Met’l. Jour. v. 7, 1890, pp. 97-117, and (16), 1S90 v. 1, pp. 741-770. (46) Glassford, W. A. Synopticnl sketch of the progress of
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SOIL TEMPERATURES IN THE UNITED STATES
By EDITH M. FITTON and CHARLES F. BROOKE
[Clark University, Worcester. hfss.1
By writing to all the a ricultural experiment stations and examining the availab 7 e literature on t,he subject, soil
FIOUBE 1.-Air and soil temperatures at Temple, Tex., Lincoln, Nebr., and Urbana, 11.
temperatures for 32 stations in the United States have been obtained.~ OnlyIthe very cordial coopertition of the
agricultural experiment stations, the library of the United States Weather Bureau, and certain individuals has made
possible the collection of the data. The stations, though few in number, are fairly representative of the country as a whole.
Many variations in the conditions under which the soil
temperatures were taken occur. I n general, the esperi- nient stations obtained soil temperatures not because of interest primarily in the temperatures themselves, but to determine the extent to which the temperatures were favorable or unfavorable for an important local crop or for
bacteria harmful or helpful to that crop. Thus the ther- mometers were often placed a t the depth a t which the seed would be planted, so the depths for the different stations vary considerably. Also, because the interest was chiefly in connection with crops, records were often taken only during the growing season instead of through- out the year. Soils such as clay, loam, sand, peat, etc., are indicated; soil covers are various-bare, CUI tivated, sod, orchard, tobacco, cotton, mulches, etc. ; exposures noted at different stations indicate variations between hillsides and bottom lands, dry soil and wet soil, shade and sun, etc. The accompanying table of soil tempera- tures indicates these variations where possible; it will be noted that some stations make no specification whatever
as to the soil, soil cover, or exposure at the place where the soil thermometers were placed. In cases where tempera-
tures of several kinds of soil or soil cover or exposure were recorded a t one station, all of the data are included in the table for purposes of comparison at the station itself. The material was sent to the authors in many different forms-some of it had already been published; some was
in the form of graphs from which the desired tempera- tures could be read ; in many instances the original thermo- graph records were sent and readings and tabulations were iiiade froiii them; often a letter from an official of the sta- tion indicated d l the soil temperatures that the station had available. Where possible, the temperatures in the
tables were obtained by averaging the mean daily maxi-
ilium and mean daily minimum temperatures for each month. I t is very apparent that the soil temperatures obtained
for the 32 stations are by no means uniform-variations occur in the years, months, or days of record, the method
~
1 Based on a paper presented before the Association of American Geographers at Wor- cester, hlnss.. lJecentber.29, 1930, by Edth M. Fitton.