🚀 go-pugleaf

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--------------52A58D1519F
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

JOSEPH HENRY
     Father of the National Weather Service

     born Dec 17, 1797 in Albany NY

     By Frank Millikan
     Historian - Joseph Henry Papers Project
     Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Storm warnings, daily weather forecasts, and weather maps seem so much a
part of modern life that it is hard to imagine a world without them. But
when the Smithsonian was founded in 1846, there was no central agency to
provide timely data on the weather, and people had to rely on an annual
almanac.

Joseph Henry helped shape the world we know when he laid the foundation
of
a national weather service shortly after becoming the Smithsonian's
first
Secretary.

Henry's interest in meteorology dated to his days as a professor at the
Albany Academy in Albany, New York, where he compiled reports of
statewide
meteorological observations for the University of the State of New York.
As
a professor of natural philosophy (physics) at the College of New Jersey
(Princeton), he conducted research on lightning and engaged in
discussions
with pioneer meteorologists both in the United States and Britain about
storm patterns and atmospheric physics.

When Henry came to the Smithsonian, one of his first priorities was to
set
up a meteorological program. In 1847, while outlining his plan for the
new
institution, Henry called for "a system of extended meteorological
observations for solving the problem of American storms." By 1849, he
had
budgeted $1,000 for the Smithsonian meteorological project and
established
a network of some 150 volunteer weather observers. A decade later, the
project had more than 600 volunteer observers, including people in
Canada,
Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Its cost in 1860 was $4,400,
or
thirty percent of the Smithsonian's research and publication budget.

The Smithsonian supplied volunteers with instructions, standardized
forms,
and, in some cases, with instruments. They submitted monthly reports
that
included several observations per day of temperature, barometric
pressure,
humidity, wind and cloud conditions, and precipitation amounts. They
also
were asked to comment on "casual phenomena," such as thunderstorms,
hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, meteors, and auroras.

Enlisting enthusiastic volunteers proved less of a problem than
interpreting their observations. In 1856, Henry contracted with James H.
Coffin, a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Lafayette
College in Easton, Pennsylvania, to carry out this task. Coffin, who
received as many as half-a-million separate observations in a year,
complained that some contained "new-coined characters & hieroglyphics"
that
made them unintelligible. He also had to employ up to fifteen human
"computers" to help make the necessary arithmetical calculations. In
1861,
he finally published the first of a two- volume compilation of climatic
data and storm observations based on the volunteers' reports for the
years
1854 through 1859.

A second aspect of Henry's meteorological project was weather
telegraphy.
Early on, Henry foresaw the storm-warning potential of the telegraph, an
invention he had pioneered himself in the 1830s and that Samuel Morse
had
made commercially feasible by 1845. Realizing that storms in the United
States generally moved from west to east, he wrote in the Smithsonian's
1847 annual report that "the extended lines of telegraph will furnish a
ready means of warning the more northern and eastern observers to be on
the watch for the first appearance of an advancing storm."

By 1849, Henry worked out an arrangement with a number of telegraph
companies to allow free transmission of local weather data to the
Smithsonian. He also proposed to supply "the most important stations"
with
barometers and thermometers. By 1857, telegraph stations from New
Orleans
to New York were cooperating.

These dispatches enabled Henry to devise a large daily weather map. Its
purpose, Henry wrote, was "to show at one view the meteorological
condition
of the atmosphere over the whole country."

The map, which Henry mounted in 1856 for public display in the Castle,
was
dotted with colored discs. As telegraph reports came in each morning, an
assistant placed white discs in locations with fair weather, blue ones
where snow fell, black where there was rain, and brown where conditions
were cloudy. Arrows on the discs showed the direction of prevailing
winds.

The map attracted considerable public attention. Henry noted that
tourists
who viewed it "all appear to be specially interested in knowing the
condition of weather to which their friends at home are subjected at the
time." He decided to share the telegraph dispatches with the Washington
Evening Star, which, in May 1857, began publishing daily weather
conditions
at nearly twenty different cities. Henry thus helped give rise to the
popular newspaper weather page.

Henry's map also made some forecasting possible. "If a black card is
seen
in the morning on the station at Cincinnati, indicating rain at that
city,"
he noted, "a rain storm may confidently be expected at Washington at
about
seven o'clock in the evening." This rule-of-thumb proved reliable enough
for Henry to postpone evening lectures at the Smithsonian on days
Cincinnati had morning rain.

Henry apparently envisioned a system of storm warnings, announcing in
his
annual report for 1857 that he hoped the following year to arrange with
telegraph lines "to give warning on the eastern coast of the approach of
storms." But he was not able to implement the plan before the Civil War
engulfed the nation.

The war dealt a major blow to the meteorological project. Henry wrote in
1861 that the project "suffered more from the disturbed condition of the
country than any other part of the operations of the Smithsonian
establishment." Urgent public business forced weather information off
the
telegraph lines, and secession cut Henry off from his southern
observers.
Although he was able to revive the project after the war, Henry began
taking steps to transfer its operations to the federal government.

In his annual report for 1865, Henry called for the federal government
to
establish a national weather service capable of issuing storm warnings
and
other weather predictions. Others urged similar proposals, and in 1870
Congress passed a bill that put storm and weather predictions in the
hands
of the U.S. Army's Signal Service. By 1874, Henry convinced the Signal
Service to take over the volunteer observer system as well.

The weather functions of the Signal Service were transferred in 1891 to
the
newly established U.S. Weather Bureau, which later became the National
Weather Service. That service today, as David Laskin puts it in his 1996
book Braving the Elements: The Stormy History of American Weather,
"still
adheres to the same fundamental structure and principles that Joseph
Henry
devised and set in motion."


[For more on Henry's interest in meteorology, see Frank Millikan,
"Joseph
Henry's Grand Meteorological Crusade," Weatherwise 50 (October/November
1997): p14-18.]

*****************************************************************

JOSEPH HENRY BICENTENNIAL - 17 December 1997

Special Events are scheduled in Albany NY, Galway NY,
Schenectady NY, Washington D.C. and Princeton NJ.


COME JOIN THE CELEBRATIONS & OBTAIN LIMITED EDITION FULL COLOR
COMMEMORATIVE CACHETS FROM SUNY-ALBANY, GALWAY HIGH SCHOOL,
THE SCHENECTADY MUSEUM & THE ALBANY ACADEMY

Galway High School
5317 Sacandaga Rd., Galway NY
9AM to 3PM

Schenectady Museum (518) 382-7890
Nott Terrace Heights, Schenectady NY
10AM to 2PM

Joseph Henry Memorial Building
Academy Park, Albany NY
7:30PM to 9:30PM


PLAN ON VISITING THE "JOSEPH HENRY EXHIBITION", IN SCHENECTADY NY
WITH ARTIFACTS ON LOAN FROM THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
AT UNION COLLEGE'S NOTT MEMORIAL, NOW THROUGH JANUARY 18, 1998.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Attached GIF Image:
Louise Rochon Hoover's painting,
"Secretary Henry Posts Daily Weather Map in Smithsonian Building, 1858."
Commissioned for the Smithsonian exhibition,
at the Chicago Century of Progress Exhibition in 1933.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--------------52A58D1519F
Content-Type: image/gif; name="JH-MAP2.GIF"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: inline; filename="JH-MAP2.GIF"

<encoded_portion_removed>
i7/5q7/7y7/967//C8ABLMD4GxAAAA==
--------------52A58D1519F
Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="JHFLYER2.JPG"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: inline; filename="JHFLYER2.JPG"

<encoded_portion_removed>
GPOt+HnXnX6af//Z
--------------52A58D1519F--