Apm.t,, 1916. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. m
I was impressed with the unsatisfactory state of our knowl- edge of atmospheric refraction. Two years later my es- perience a t Poulkova, Russia, and at our Naval Observ- atory, Washin ton, seemed to justify my conclusion that astronomers w % o would improve their meridional measure- ments must investigate their local atmospheric conditions more thoroughly and to this end must have numerous surrounding meteorological observations. Hence in my inaugural Cincinnati address of May 1, 1868, I stated that with a proper system of weather reports the public need of forecasts could be met and that astronomy could also be benefited. This suggestion was taken up by Mr. John A. Gano, presi- dent of the local chamber of commerce; n coiiiniittee met me, approved m lavs, and promised the expenses of a
on my hands, but immediately began to arrange for 40
voluntary meteorological correspondents. On my returii from observing the ecli se at Sioux F& City, I stop ed
Trade to ‘oin in estending the Cincinnati system to the Great Lakes, but this invitation was deched by the Chicago Board of Trade. An editorial in a Chicago even- ing ?per of Monday, August 16, 1Y69, stated the scien- tific asis of our observatory work. I returned at oncc
to Cincinnati, issued the first number of the Cincinnati Weather Bulletin romptly, as promised, on September 1,
1869; it containe B n few observations telegraphed frorn distant observers and the “probabilities” for the nest day. This bulletin was osteil, in my o m handwriting,
gelow m misspelled “Teusday” a humorous line by Mr. gavk, the well-known packer: “A bad spell of weather for ‘Old Probs.’ ” This established my future ver popular name “Old Probs.” d y forecasts were treated very kindly by all. I had anticipated a slow increase in accuryi; I ventured to write m father in New York City ave started that which t z e country will not willingly let die.” I wrote a short note to the New York Times (or Tribune) telling them how useful we could be to their ship in . On September 3, 1869 I even ventured to offer a $ai$ tele- ram by the French cable to Le Verrier as founder of the Bulletin Hebdomadaire de I’Association ScientXque and who could fully synipathize with my hopes and plans. He realized the breakers ahead of me better than I. My daily telegram from Milwaukee came from the well-known Smithsonian observer and author, Prof. Increase Allen Lapham. He had known and appreciated the works of Espy, Redfield, Loomis, and others, but he had become absorbed in other studies; he now urged tho local Milwaukee society to do something for Lake Michi- His friends were ‘ust about to go to tho Richmond
William Hoo er and John A. Gano. These merc1ant.e of Cincinnati found that the had the same idea as H. E.
s h o d develop theCincinnati enterprise and makeit useful to the whole country. The National Board of Trade in- dorsed this idea; Prof. La ham, of Milwaukee, drew up
Hon. Halbert E. Paine prepared Public Resolution No. 9:
we eachput our shoulders to the wheel and behold on Feb- ruary 9, 1870, the Secreta of War was authorized to c a q out this new duty. ?had s ent a year in finding stations voluntary observers, an5 telegraph facilities; every oid classmate or friend of progressive meteorology had helped the new idea. The work had now passed out of my hands. I saw that I must soon go back to the
first trial. I ha BR t e total solar eclipse of August 7, 1869,
at Chicago and forma ff 9 invited the Chicago Boarcfof
rominently in the hall o P the chamber; but I soon found
meeting of the Nationa 1 Board of Trade: there the met
Paine of Milwaukee, i. e., t t at the Federal Government
some statistics of stormsan B destruction on thelakes: the
observatory work that I had undertaken-the rejuvens- tion of the famous old Cincinnati observatory-but there was much more to be done. A letter from the Chief Signal Wcer, United States Army, Gen. Albert J. Myer, asked for all possible coo eration. The officials of the Western Union Telegraph 80. offered the observa- tory the same free daily weather reports that they had for 20 yeais been givin to the Sn~thsonian Institution and the daily ress; so f continued tem orarily to make and publish &e Cincinnati Bulletin, %ut in a much simpler form and without forecaats. This continued until Ma 10, 1870, when I was married, and the pre ara- tion of t E e midnight bulletin passed over to the o fi! cials of the locd telegraph office. It was continued in this sha e until November, 1870, when the tridaily bulletins
Williams, who was in charge of the Western Union office, I printed in October, 1Y69, a code of cipher, and should have used this code for economy, had not the Joint Resolution of February 9’ 1S70, niiticipatetl further reports by my own stations. This cotlc w*as subsequently rcatly improved by \Vetit.ht?r Bur~au nien, and particu- farly by Gen. A. W, Greely, ant1 it is stiU in use. The manifolded duplic.nte copies and the printed copies of the daily Cincinnati Observntory Bulletin were dis- trihuted until the chnnilm of coiiimcrce no longer needed to support it; then Mr.lWillianis devised a simple form of manifold may that was a great improvement on my original tabular form of dail reports. This ma was soon adopted hy the Signal Zervice, but was itsef P dis- placed in turn b the present handsome daily litho- gra hed chart. githout the help of Armstrong and \Vi8iams and the new manifold method patented by J. Jones we could not have promptly responded to the needs of our friends. By November, 1870, I had gone to New York and prepared to go as astronomer on one of the Panama Canal surveys, but I gave this u and should have returned soon to Cincinnati had f n o t , in December,
of t ?l e Army Signal Service began. With the help of --
i,- .;-,/* .; .,c y , j/ .> ..
USE OF THE TEBY “INDIAN SUMYEB” IN 1778 ?
It is gratif ing to learn from a recent paper by Mr. Horace E. dare,’ read before the Colonial Society of Massachuseih that the search for facts bearing on the origin of the term “Indian summer” as applied to cer- t.a.in phases of our f d weather, keeps alive. Mr. Ware’s p a w cites a poem of 1815, by Philip
he also quotes Mrs. SI ournefs poem on the subject,
1 Ware, Home E. N o h on the term Is Indim summer.” Pub., Colonial 8dc. of
Frenenu, as the f! rst appearance of the term in poetry;
writ.tm hefore and pub f islied in 1849.
Mass., Cambridge, Y~ss., 1918, 18: 198-180.
208 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. ApazL, 1916
In the discussion of Mr. Ware’s paper Mr. Albert Matthews remarked that while heretofore a the earliest’ known instance of the term “Indian summer” occurred Denny while at Le Erie, under date of October an example earlier certainly 16 yenis. Mr. Matthews
In a letter dated “Germanflats, 17 janvier 1775.’’ Crevecoeur gives R
“Description d’une Chute de Ne@, Dans le Pays de Mohawks, sous
le rapport qui interhsse le Cultivateur AmBricain.” in which occurs the followmg paesage: “Lea grandes pluies viennent enfin & remplissent les sources, les r u k a u x & lea mais, pronostic infsillible; b cette chGte d’enu sw- cMe une forte gelhe, qui nous amhe le vent de nord-ouest: ce froid payant ‘ette un pont universe1 sur tous les endroita aquati ues, h p&pm !e terre b recevoir cette mande niaase de ne@ qui doit%ient,Gt. auivre: lee chemins auparavant impracticables, devieunent ouvert,s &
faciles. Quelquefois a rhs cet.te pluie, il arrive un intervnlle de calme & de chaleur. rppelb! Sawnge ce qui l’indi ue. c’est la t,nui- quillit6 de l’atmosphhe, & une apparence gBnCrne he fumCe.--Les approches de l’hiver sont douteuses jiisqii’ b cette bpoque: il vient wrs la moitic? de novenibre, quoiyue souvent des neiges & tles ge!l:cs
passrrghes arrivent longt.elns supamvani .”
At lzet come tlic heav 1 rains. filling t,he springs, the ere& iruisst.aus I ,
and the mmshes, an in?allible si n; following this fall o l water coinc-s :L
aevere fmt bmu ht to ud by tf? northwest wind; this piercing cohl builds a universafbridge over the watery latcrs and prepart’s t.he land for that great mass of snow which shoufd $on follow it.: the roada. which have been impasgtble heretofore, become open and convenient.. Sometimes the rain is followed by an interval of calm and wnrnith which is called t,he Indian summ (1’EtB Sauvage); its chamt.cristica are a tranquil atmoThere and a Up t.o t.liis epoch the approaches of mnter are dou%ul: it arrives about the middle of
November, although snows and brief freezes frequently occur Ion:
before that date.-c. A.. jr. “Germanflats” is the present. Herldmer, N. Y. The aut.lior W:IR so careless about certain mutters that we can not be sure t,hat Ilia Iet.t.ers
were actually written at. the dates awigned. but the work from which the paaxage is cited was published in 1787.‘
TRANSLATION.
neral smokiness.
PROF. KITTREDQE’S THEORY.
While 011 this subject of Indian summer it may be of
interest to refer to yet another effort to esplain tho origin of the term. &of. George L. I(ittreclge5 soinc
years ago discussed the question and offered several
. He thinks, for example, that it is too fnr- fetc sTtions ed to explain “ Indian summer,” as haziness which
waa ori inally due, in ,art, to hrush and forest fires
Far more reasonable is the conjecture that the name alludes to t,he proverbial deceitfulness and treachery of the natives. * * * Or r b l y we should think rather of their equally proverbial instability. othing is more fickle than the weather in Indian summer; though thia is a quality that might be predicated bf our weather in general.
Or, finalp * * * it is conceivable that Indian summer wm at. fir& equiv ent (among the earliest English immiorants) to “fod’s
summer.” If so, we seem to have a parallel to the “ald Women’s Sum- mer” of the Germans. and it may be also to the “go-summer” of t,lic
Scota i f this is a corruptionof ‘ Goose summer,” asscholars su pose
* * ’ * Nothing impressed the settlers more than the folly of tge recl men in certain matters. * * * “Fool’s summer,” though not prettF would be apprqpiiate enough, and would range well with “fool’8 gold’ for iron pyntes. fool’s par$ey” for the poisonous lesser hemlock, and ign& fatuus, or “fool’s fie,
kindled%y the American !I ndians in Noveniber.
***
for the will-o’-the-wisp.
8ee h l a p r in thls REVIEW January and Febru 18oa 30.19-28 69-79 :Lettres ‘unCultivateurAmdcain * * * de ui?8hdltiOjus h*enl7$6,par M. 8t. John de Cr$veaeur, Tradultas de 1’Anglois. !’arls, 1787.1 294. Tie desmiotron -. .. 269-314 -A X d K W .9
“?&%la Lett& of in Amerl& Farmer, published in London in 1782, hmceu;does not mnntlm the In& summer. Yv attention was called to the DassBee In the text bv
NEED FOE PAN AlldEBICAN ~TEOEOLOQICAL CO OPEBATION.
[In the General Report on the Final Act of the Second Pan American Scientific Congress, held in Washington, Dec. 37, 1915Jan. 8, 1916, prepared by Mr. James Brown Scott, reporter general to the congress, we fhd the following commentaries on articles 5 and 6 of the resolutions. and recommendations (pp. 59-61 .]
Article 5 [recommends that] proper steps and meaaures be taken to brisg about in the American Re ublics a general use of the nictric
system of weights and measures, in %e prese, magazines, newspapers, ?nd periodicals, in educational and scientific work, in the industries, in commerce, in transportation, and in all the activities of the dif- ferent governments.
To the citizens of the Latin-Americmi Republics this article will seem well-ni h meaningless, for in the West-
eiii Hemis here the lfnglish s stem of weights &lid nieasures o 73 tains only in the 6nited States and the English-speaking colonies, whereas the remaining Anieri-
cain republics and the greater part of tho Easteiii Heiiii- sphere use the metric system. Measures and weights :we, however, an iniportmit part of the vocabulary in international relations. The English is not nearly so
convtwient aiid simple as the metric system, either in coniinercial or scientific work. The use of the English system in the United States is one of the important ob- stnales, in the o inion of the American delegates, to tl
closer cominerciaf and scientific intercourse and coopere tion between the United States and the other American Republics. Therefore, the adoption of the metric. system by the United States would be a great benefit economi- d l y to the general public, and it is believed that it would not be without importance in promoting good will and niutunl understanding. .
ARTICLE 6 [the congress] confirms the resolution recommended to the American Republics by the First Pan American Scient& Con- gress regarding the iiurtallahoib of ineborolo~cd orqamhtions to serve as a basis for the establishment of a Pan dmerlcan meteorological service, and expreeses the deme that the Republics not yet possessing organized meteorological services establish such as m n as may be practicable.
As questions of international importance, the various topics under meteorology and seismology were considered
in the Second Section of the congress. The needs es- ecially of the organization of governmental services for continuous observation of atmospheric and terrestrial phenomena by means of common methods, intercom- arable apparatus, and common units were dwelt upon. buch attention was given to the modes of Organization
l ~l l c l conduct of existing weather bureaus, to methods of forecasting weather, and to the increasing importance
of the application of these as an aid to agriculture, navigation, and land transportation of perishable prod- ucts. Much attention was given also to consideration of secular phenoniena in nieteorology and to their effects in the habitable as well as in the uninhabitable parts of the globe. One of the most interesting to ics considered as a b -
desirabilit of forming an unofficial internationai asso-
ciation o f meteorolo ists and seismologists for the mutual eschange of i%eas and experience arising from these sciences. It wm thought that such an organization might accoiiiplish for meteorology and seismolog sults similar to those which have proved highly i ene- re- ficial during the past two centuries in the [other] physical sciences. It will be observed by peraons familiar with the Pan American scientific congresses, and, indeed, it is ex- pressly stated in the recommendation itself, that the
product of Chework of the Secon a Sectionwas that of t l? e