DECEMBER, 1905. MONTHLY WEATHER REYEW. 647
Mr. J. Warren Smith, Section Director, Columbus, Ohio,
reports that on November 8, 1905, he delivered a half hour
illustrated leature a t the Pan Handle Machine Shops in Colnm-
bus during the noon hour. The lecture was given a t the re-
quest of the local branch of the Pennsylvania Railway Young
Men’s Christian Association.
The Chief of Bureau has received from Mr. L. &I. Tarr,
Local Forecaster, New Haven, Conn., a letter written by Pres-
ident Arthur T. Hadley, of Yale TTniversity, in wliicli President
Hadley errpresses high appreciation of the -work that Mr. Tarr
is doing for the students of meteorology in Yale.
Mr. U. G. Parssell, Local Forecaster, Erie, Pa., gave an
address before the Erie High School on December 19, 1905,
on the organization, work, and practical benefits of the Weat,her
Bureau. The audience was composed of the principal, teacli-
ers, and nefirly seven hundred students.
At Albany, N. Y., a class of eight young ladies froin St,.
Agnes’s Acacleiiiy visited the M7eather Bureau ofice and Mr.
George Todd, Local Forecast,er, explainecl to them the instru-
mental ecluipinent, charts, and ilia11 making.
During November and December, 1905, R h . J. L. Bartlett,
Observer, Madison, \Vis., clelivered six lectures on meteoro-
logical subjects, illustrated with the stereopticon, before
various classes and organizations of the University of \Vis-
consin. --
Mr. T. S. Outram, Section Director, Minneapolis, RIinn..
addressed the class in physical geography of the Minnesota
State University, December 9, 1905, on the Iaw of storms and
iiiethocls of practical forecasting.
SPECIAL METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS FOR SPECIAL STUDIES.
A correspondent who is now htuclying botany at the Desert
Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute, at, Tucson, driz.,
writes as follows from his temporary Iocation at TTTitcIi Creek,
San Diego County, Gal., 116’ -10’ west and 33’ 5’ north, on tlie
soilthwest slope of the San Jacinto RIountains, a d about 50
miles northeast of San Diego:
I wonder if the Weather Bureau wonld not establish a Pew stations
in this mountain country for observation of temperature, humidity, etc. ;
in short, make arrangements wherehy the lmtanist, when lie attempts
to tell about the relations between plant societies and climatic conditions may know what the conditions are. I t would at the mine time be a
great boon to the health seeker. Tmo gears ago I callrd on the official
in charge of the San Diego station for the purpose of finding out some- thing about humidity in the back country here. I was suffrring greatly
from rheumatism ancl needed the information, but there was absolutely
none to be had. Following such advice as I could get, I came up here
and found a good climate-no thanks to the Weather Bureau !
My notion is that if a good volunteer observer at each of a half tliurn
stations kept these records they would in a few years prove invaluable.
A s soon as you get back a few miles from the sea, conclitions begin to
change, and by the time you reach Witch Creek, 50 milebfrom San Diego,
you are in a climate not so dry as the desert, but intermediate between
that and the climate of the coast. Suppose you had, right along this
stage line, so that they could easily be supervised, observers a t Ramona,
1000 feet; Witch Creek, 2400 feet; aulian, 4000 feet; and Banner, just over
the ridgedown inthe desert; and one or two others, sag a t Mesa Grande
(a flne fruit region), who would conscientiously keep these records-
I believe that they would pay a large return. He
answered with some pride that he had and that he always kept a recortl
oP the rainpall. He said he ii-o~~ld be
glad to keep records as a volunteer observer if instruments aud blanks
for reports were furnished him. I have no doubt he would take much
interest in the matter and, according to his lights, do it with scrupulous
care. A gentleman a t MesaGrande, some miles from here, wants to
73-5
I asked our postmaster here this morning if he had a rain gage.
The gage Is a kerosene oil can.
keep such records, and went so far a8 t o make application to the Sen
Diego station a while ago for an outfit and instructions The matter
seems not to have gone any further. I n a region like this, where the climate changes every few miles, there is great need of definite recorde.
Such a chain of stations at these different altitudes and distances from
the sea, beginning with Sau Diego and ending a t Banner, would give
data that it seems to me are absolutely necessary i! we attempt to
account for plant distribution and- habits. They will not tell all, for the historical fador is to be reckoned with, but every substantfal Pact well
established does throw a ray of light into the darkness.
I shall be here a month n r two before going back to Tucson, and if the
idea s e e m feasible I should be very glad indeed to help our postmaster
here to get btarted with an actual rain gage and such other apparatus
as it may seem heht to provide him with; and I think I could help some
others in the same uay if it were decided to establish any more volun-
tary 5tations. I havP had no special opportunities for cloing this work
myself. but I know what the botauists want. A t present I am keeping records nf relative humidity with Lambrecht’s polymeter, but I presume
some other forin of psychrometer would be less liable to get out of order
in tlie hands of an inexperienced observer.
*4 request like the above, from one entirely devoted to a spe-
cial research, appeals very strongly to tlie Chief of Bureau
and to all mho wish to see every form of meteorological research
properly supported. This is, however, only one of perhaps
liuntlreds o f similar requestB received every year, and as Clon-
gress has iiiacle no special provision for anything more than
the necessary increase of \Ireather Bureau forecast work ancl
expenses, they must all be most regretfully denied.
The weather has an intiinate relation to everything that goes
on at the earth’s surface ; seiemology, geology, botany, agri-
culture, milling, navigation. hygienics, conimerce, astronomy
represent only a sinall portion of the wide range of subjects
that are forced upon the attention of the Weather Bureau. A
few years ago i t was said that the $10,000,000 given by Car-
negie for scient,ific research mould suffice, but the first year’s
eq’erience showed that i t coulcl all be used up on any one of
several 1m1nche.s of research. Siiiiilarly with the Weather
Bureau-its resources are now wholly occupied in taking care of
weather and river forecasts and crop reports. There are other
great fields of human industry calling for assistance, but for
the p r e ~e n t it mill be impracticable for the Chief to incur the
expense of special stations that may be needed by special
investigators. It was with great regret that he was obliged
to abanclon the expensive mountain stations on Mount Wash-
ington and Pikes Peak, which had contributed SO much to the
knowledge of the upper air. As our first duty is the study of
the atiiiosphere, with a view to forecasting the weather, it is
prolmble that the prosecution of mountain and balloon work
is a more imperative duty than the study of dry desert regions.
If the latter c.ould contribute to our knowledge of the mechsn-
ivs of the atiiiosphere to any huch degree as do the highest
mountains, then they might, linre a similar dellland upon our
attention. For the present. however, i t moiilcl seem that the
botanist and the sanitarian nibst look elsewhere for funds to
maintain a few observers in the localities that specially inter-
est them. The primary and funclaiilental duty of the Weather
Bureau is the developiiient of oiir knowledge of atmospheric
iiiotions ant1 clisturbances-not the average climate, but the
daily weather.
With regard to the apparatus, the important instrument is
that coinhination of wet-bulb and dry-bulb thermometers
known as the psychrometer, ancl especially for real accuracy
the whirled psychroiiieter in an instrument shelter as used by
the Weather Bureau, or the sling psychrometer, or Doctor
Craig’s combination of shelter and sling, which is portable and
less expensire. The Geriiians use the ventilated psychrometer
invented by dssmann and manufactured by Fuess in Berlin.
This instrument is highly convenient and very accurate. But
the simplest instrument means an expense of probably at least
$6 for the two thermometers, since they must be of the best
648 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. DECEMBER, 1906
possible grade and their errors properly stated on an accom-
panying correction card, such as is furnished by the United
States Bureau of Standards at Washington, at t i very small
expense. A complete Weather Bureau station is rarely needed
for such special studies.
CYCLONES AND ANTICYCLONES.
The following article on cycloiies and anticyclones was
written in response to a request from a correspoiitlent, appar-
ently a small schoolboy, for some information about cyclones
and anticyclones. As other young readers of the McwTHLY
WEATHER REVIEW may also wish information oil tlie subject,
‘the reply is here publishecl.
The atmosphere is an envelope or layer of gas that we call
air covering the whole earth just as the peel covers RU orange.
It is unlike the orange peel in that i t is free to move, like
water. The air is, in fact, a sort of ocean that flows above us.
The air, like other gases, id compressible, and the lower
layers of the atmosphere, whicli hare to bear the weight of
the upper layers, are iiiuch denser than the upper layers
because the weight of these upper lagers is pressing down
upon the layer8 underneath, just as the hay at the bottom of
a stack or the layers of wool a t tlie bottoni of a pile of fleece
are more closely packed.
You can readily understand that a crab in the ocean or a
crawfish in a pond must feel the differences in pressure as the
waves of water go over hiin, especially in the sh~llow water
on the seashore, where waves five or six feet high frequently
pass over places that had only a few iuclies of water a moment
before. The changes in the pressure of tlie air are not BO
sudden nor so extreme. The average pressure is about fifteen
pounds to the square inch, and in eitreine cases a chaiige of
only a pound or a pound ancl a half t:tkes place in the course
of a dag.
The pressure of the air is ineasurecl with an instrument
celled the barometer (from two (+reek worcls, boros, weight,
and ))wtron, measure), whence barometric pressure is spoken
of, meaning pressure measured with the barometer, and as
the barometer is only used to measure atmospheric pressure,
baronietrio pressure is siinply pressure of the air.
The barometer iiiost, comr~~only used is called the inercurial
barometer and consists of a piece of glass tube about a yard
long, closed a t one end by melting the glass together. This
tube is held open end up, ant1 filled with mercury, m c l a sm:tll
bowl is also filled with inercury. The tube is tightly coreretl
with the finger, turned end for end. and the open end is put
under the inercnry in the howl and the finger tdien away.
The mercury in the tube runs out into the bowl until about
30 inches of mercury remain in the tube, lettving at the top
an einpty space. The pressures of the mercury in the tube
and the air outside balance each other, in just the saine way
as the columns of water in the two arms of a U-shaped tube
balance each other. When the pressure of tlie air liecoiues
less, the pressure on the surface of the iiierciiry in the bowl
becomes less, ancl some of the mercury runs out of the tube
into the bowl. In this case the barometer is said to fall,
meaning that the top of its coluinn of mercury is lower.
When the air pressure becomes greater, the pressure on the
surface of the mercury in the bowl beromes greater, and the
mercury runs back up into the tube. Then the baroineter is
said to rise, meaning that tlie top of the column is higher.
These changes are measured by placing a piece of metal
marked like a ruler or yardstick beside the tube of the
barometer. This is called tlie scale of the barometer, and
because the scale is divided into inches the pressure is spoken
of asbeing so many inches of the barometer: the inches are sub-
divided into tenths and hundredths. On the weather map
lines are drawn through all the places where the barometric
reading is the same. There are other kinds of barometers
besides the mercurial barometer. A kind very frequently
seen is the aneroid barometer (aneroid from a, without, and
wt’os, wet, without fluid), which consists of a small metal box
with a spring inside. When the pressure becomes greater
the sides of the box are pressed together, and when the pres-
sure becomes less the sides are pushed outward by the spring.
The sides are connected by a thread to a hand tlmt moves
around a dial like the face of a clock. Baronieters can be
macle with water instead of mercury, but then the tube has to
be about 30 feet high. A difference of en inch in the height
of the Inerciiry in tlie barometer corresponds to a difference
of about a half a pou1icl of pressure to each square inch.
You may have noticed little whirlpools in tlie water of a
brook or ri\er, where the bonk juts out or where the current
flows arouncl a log or stone. P e r l q s you hare also noticed
places where the water seemed to be boiling up from below,
and wondered if there might be a whirlpool upside down that
was causing the water to come up from the bottom. Whirl-
pools like these frequently occur in the atmosphere, for it is
not still like the water in a pond, 1)ut is moving in great cur-
reuts or streatns like water in a canal or river. One such
streaiii flows high a b o ~e the ground over the Northern Hemi-
sphere in the Teniperate Zone ancl another over the Temperate
Zone of the Southern Heiiiihphere. Both of these flow from
weht to east. The air over the tropical regious of the earth
between these two streains of air is alitiost calni, except down
at the surface of the ocean where the trade winds blow, in the
Northern Hemisphere from tlie northeast toward tlie equator,
and in the Southern Heinisphere from the houtheast toward
the equator.
You c:tu see that the United States is miiler a stream of air
floning from the west by watching tlie high, thin clouds called
cirrus or mare’s tails, ” which generally collie from a westerly
direction, either uorthwest, west, or southwer;t.
Whirls are formed in these aerial streaius just as whirlpools
and uprusher; are formed in the rivers and brooks, h i t as the
rivers of air are inucli larger than tlie rivers of water SO the
whirlpools of air are inuch larger than the nhirlpools of water.
Tlie little whirlpouls in the 1)rook or river are generally only a
few inches in diameter and last lmt it few minutes, while they
are carried along a few feet or p d s . The whirls that are
formed in the air are of all sizes, the largest ones are sonie-
times so large that they coler several States :mil sometimes a
third or linlf of the whole United Stateh; they last fur several
cl:tys and exen for a week or more and travel great clidxnces,
some having been known to travel almost around the earth.
Tliese big whirls in the air are of t n o kinds: in one the air
at the surface of the earth flows inward toward the center of
the whirl, rises, and when i t gets high above the ground flows
outward froin the center. This kind of whirl is called cyclone
(from the Greek word kirklos, which means whirling around).
The other kind of atiaospheric whirl is more like the whirl-
pool in the river for in it the air coiues down from above with
a spiral inovement and spreads out over the land. This is
the anticyclone, so called because it is opposite to the cyclone
in ~iiany ways (a u t / is a Greek prefix, meaning opposed to, or
contrary to). as stated in the opposite paragraphs in the fol-
lowing comparison of the state of things near tlie surface of
the earth:
In the cyrlmie- Iii the nntir*yctone--
The wind blows spirally inward The wind IJ~OWS spirally outward
toward the center. from the center.
The air pressure is lowest at the The air pressure is highest at the
center, for which reason cyclone6 center. and auticyclones are called
are alho calletl lows ’ I . highs ”. The air in cyclones is warm, The air in anticyclones is cold,
especially at the front. especially at the front.
The weather in cyclones is The weather in anticyclones is
cloudy and rainy. clear and dry.