1. The present organization of this institution dates from the beginning of the civil war, and was originally purely military in its aims and purposes. It is still conducted by the War Department, and partly for its own purposes; but its value to agricultural and commercial interests is constantly becoming more apparent and more extensive, and will probably, in the end, so overshadow its military relations as to reduce them to a very subordinate place in importance. The civil uses of this service are based on the science of meteorology, which is largely occupied with weather changes, the origin,[421] progress, and laws of Storms. Its value to the people consists in its accurate prediction of changes in the weather, and the warning it is able to give, sometimes many hours or even days in advance, of dangerous storms. Its estimate of weather probabilities, based on observations reported daily from prominent points covering the whole country, are published in all the daily papers, usually found accurate, and are of great value to certain classes of the people. When a storm threatens to endanger the safety of shipping a signal is displayed in the port to give warning, and much property and many lives are often saved. It makes an accurate and scientific study of the weather and all the laws controlling its changes, by a large corps of enlightened and trained observers, all whose facts, constantly reported, systematized, and studied by competent persons, are likely to produce, in time, a most important and useful body of knowledge on that subject. 2. The objects of the Signal Service require its officials to be connected with the United States army, to have the use of the Electric Telegraph, to be familiar with Meteorology, and skillful in the use of the scientific instruments employed in the study of atmospheric changes. By means of the telegraph, the army, though scattered over the whole country, and especially the frontiers and more inaccessible parts, may be almost instantaneously, and all at the same time, communicated with. It would be possible, by telegraphs, signals, and railroads, to concentrate the whole army from the numerous points where its fragments are located, from Maine to Texas, and the Atlantic to the Pacific, at one point in as short a time as it formerly took a body of soldiers to march a hundred miles.
3. It is a singularly striking instance of the vigor and effectiveness of control supplied by science, invention, and modern progress, by which our vast increase in numbers and in extent of territory are neutralized, the interests, sentiments, and habits of the people unified so that sectional jealousies and contests are made rare and slight, and the people of remote parts of the country made practically better acquainted with[422] each other than formerly were the inhabitants of adjoining States.
4. Subordination and thoroughness of system are secured by its connection with the army, which probably also secures its advantages to the country at much less cost than would be the case were it an independent institution. The army is ambitious to be as useful as possible to the country. There is a Signal School of Instruction and Practice at Fort Whipple, in Va., which is to this Service what the Military and Naval Academies are to the Army and Navy. The most suitable persons are selected from the army or especially enlisted, and carefully schooled and tested through a sufficiently long period to render them fully competent for the delicate duties imposed on them.
5. There are about 90 Signal Stations, a few being located in Canada and the West Indies. The whole is under the direction of the Chief Signal Officer, who reports to the Secretary of War. There is a large and carefully arranged organization, under constant supervision by competent persons. Several Boards of Examination are employed in selecting suitable persons for the different duties required in the Service, and in testing their advancement toward a thorough fitness for each position to be occupied.
The first or lowest grade is for the “field” signal service, requiring a knowledge of army signals and telegraphy—this being the original military value of the institution—the second grade includes those who ar............