Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/336

320 battery is but two pounds and a half. When it is considered that, owing to the weight of the air above, the bulk of the air is comparatively near the surface of the earth, it will be seen how very valuable are observations made at the heights reached by these kites.

It may well be asked: Of what practical value are the Weather Bureau reports and prophecies? As a matter of dollars and cents, does the expenditure of the money necessary to support the Weather Bureau pay? Upon investigation it will be found that it is an immensely profitable investment.

Reports are received weekly from eight thousand special correspondents concerning the effects of the weather on the crops, and these reports serve to set a value on the products which is in just proportion to the supply, and to enable plans and contracts for the future to be made with reasonable certainty. The records, running back as they do for many years, enable invalids, manufacturers, and agriculturists to find with certainty the locality that is best suited to their needs. The investigations of the Weather Bureau have been directed toward determining the parts of the Unites States where the most constantly humid atmosphere may be found in order that cotton manufacturers may know where their spinning can be most successfully done. Forewarnings of frost enable the truck farmers to protect their produce with a mantle of smoke from a smoldering fire.

The terrible cyclones of the West are frequently foreshadowed by the Weather Bureau long enough in advance to enable people to place themselves and their property in the most protected conditions; and, during the floods of the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys, incalculable savings of life and property result from their warnings. Before the days of the bureau the West Indian hurricanes came unannounced, and sometimes two thousand lives were lost in a single storm. Under the warnings of the Weather Bureau, three such