General Meyer graduated at Geneva College, New York, 1847, A. B. and A. M., and took the degree of M. D., at the University of Buffalo, in 1851. He is the author of a manual of signals for the United States Army and Navy.
Upon his appointment as Chief of the Signal Service, of the United States Army, General Meyer at once inaugurated a systematic plan; he established stations at all points, decided by competent authorities to be important and practicable. These he provided with plain, efficient instruments, and keen, trained observers, whose duty it was to report three times daily, at intervals of eight hours. These reports, made in abbreviated cypher, were conveyed by telegraph. With the delivery of the reports at Washington, and at other important posts to which they were sent, began the practical workings of the “Weather Bureau” in the Signal Service of the United States. January 15, 1871, the stations on the Atlantic Coast, with others, were added to the list reporting.
One of the most important practical functions of the Bureau, is that of giving warning of approaching storms to vessels at the ports on the lakes. The unfortunate Metis received such a warning before it started on its last disastrous voyage. It gave no heed, and in consequence went to wreck, and scattered its victims thick as snow-flakes on the engulfing waters of the Sound. The velocity of a storm being accurately observed at any one of the stations, it was easy to predict with accuracy the time of its arrival at any given point lying in its path; while the lightning wing of the telegraph bore this knowledge instantaneously to the threatened point.
The first telegraphic warning given thus was sent and bulletined at the several ports along the lakes, November 8, 1870.
The system was soon carried still nearer perfection by the adoption of cautionary signals. The first of these was displayed at Oswego, N. Y., October 26, 1871. Near this time, without any cost to the United States, the Bureau obtained a considerable extension to its area of observation.
In time the Canadian Government made a considerable appropriation to establish a similar system in the Dominion. Professor Kingston, chief of the Meteorological Bureau of Canada, requested of General Meyer an exchange of reports. Arrangements for such an exchange were duly made, and the first reports from Toronto were forwarded to the United States, November 13, 1871. Reports were also exchanged with the director of the Observatory at Montreal. The Canadian reports are made synchronously with those of the United States and in the same cypher. The stations of the Dominion are van-posts to the United States, giving warning of storms moving downward from the north.
By the Act of Congress, approved June 10, 1872, it was made the duty of the Secretary-of-War to provide such stations, signals and reports as might be found necessary for the benefit of the commercial and agricultural interests throughout the country. In response to an invitation made by the Chief Signal Officer, eighty-nine agricultural societies and thirty-eight boards of trade and chambers of commerce have appointed meteorological committees to coöperate and correspond with the Signal Bureau. The observing stations now number eighty-five. New stations are constantly being added. The station at Mount Washington is six thousand two hundred and ninety feet above the level of the sea. Other mountain-stations are to be established for the purpose of making observations upon the varying meteorological phenomena of different altitudes. These observations are sometimes made in a balloon.
To obtain reports of observations at sea, to some extent, the coöperation of ship-captains and of officers at the head of exploring expeditions has been obtained. A constant interchange of correspondence is also maintained with foreign meteorological societies. Five hundred tri-daily reports are constantly sent abroad. The same exchange with foreign governments will be arranged as soon as possible.
Besides weather-reports, a system of observation on the changes in the depth of waters in the principal Western rivers is already established. Great pains are taken with the reports on this subject, which are made to protect the river commerce from ice and freshets, and the lower river levées from breakage and overflow. The observations on the weather embrace those on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity of the air, force, direction and velocity of the wind, and the amount of rain-fall. For these purposes each station is carefully provided with appropriate instruments by the central office.
The Signal Corps is composed of a commanding officer with the rank of brigadier-general, several commissioned officers, and a certain number of sergeants and enlisted men. The sergeants are required to be proficient in spelling, the ground-rules of arithmetic, including decimal fractions, and the geography of the United States, and are required to write a legible hand. They are examined in these branches before being admitted into the service. They are also subjected to a medical examination, and only men of sound physical condition are accepted. They are regularly enlisted into the military service of the United States, and are subject to the regulations for the government of the army.