The Weather Bureau was founded in 1870 by the United States Government, its purpose being to make daily observations of the state of the weather in all parts of the country, and to calculate from the results a forecast for each section of the country, based on the information thus obtained, these predictions being published so that the people of each district may know in advance the kind of weather likely to occur.

While these forecasts are of great convenience to practically everyone, and of importance to the agriculturist, they are frequently of still more importance to ship masters, storm warnings being given that may keep them in port when storms are expected and thus save their ships from the danger of injury or shipwreck. This system has made great progress since its institution, and reports are now received daily from more than 3,500 land stations and about fifty foreign stations, while by means of wireless telegraphy, under normal conditions, some 2,000 ships send reports of the weather conditions at sea.

Weather Bureau Box Kite.

The Government Weather Bureau uses large box kites carrying recording barometers, thermometers and other apparatus to ascertain weather conditions high in the air. This view shows a kite about to be sent up from an observatory.

Study of results has led to the belief that more than eighty per cent of winds and storms follow beaten paths, their movements being governed by physical conditions, a knowledge of which enables the Weather Bureau officials to estimate very closely their probable speed and direction and send warning of their coming in advance. Within two hours after the regular morning observation at eight o'clock, the forecasts are telegraphed to more than 2,300 principal distributing points, from which they are further sent out by mail, telegraph and telephone, being mailed daily to 135,000 addresses and received by nearly 4,000,000 telephone subscribers.

One of the most valuable services rendered is that of the warnings of cyclonic storms for the benefit of marine interests. These are displayed at nearly three hundred points on the ocean and lake coasts, including all important ports and harbors, warnings of coming storms being received from twelve to twenty-four hours in advance. The result has been the saving of vast amounts of maritime property, estimated at many millions of dollars yearly.

Agriculturists also derive great advantage from these warnings, especially those engaged in the production of fruits, vegetables and other market garden products. Warnings of frosts and of freezing weather have enabled the growers of such products to protect and save large quantities of valuable plants. It is said that on a single night in a small district in Florida, fruits and vegetables were thus saved to the amount of more than $100,000. In addition, live stock of great value has been saved by warnings a week in advance of the coming of a flood in the Mississippi; railroad companies take advantage of the forecast for the preservation, in their shipping business, of products likely to be injured by extremes of heat or cold, and in various other ways the forecasts are of commercial or other value.

One of the chief stations for observations is that at Mount Weather, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. This is equipped with delicate instruments in considerable variety for the study of varying conditions of the upper air. Kites and captive balloons are sent up every favorable day, ascending to heights of two or three miles, and equipped with self-registering instruments to record the temperature and other conditions of the atmosphere. At other times, free balloons are liberated, carrying sets of automatic registering instruments. Some of these travel hundreds of miles, but nearly all are eventually found and returned.