Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/542

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��Popular Science Monihhj

��to the total destruction of three Roman legions, under Varus, in A.D. 9.

A Frozen Fleet Captured by Cavalry

Weather and climate are so important in warfare that a commander should al- ways be prepared to guard against their adverse influences and to take advantage of those that are favorable. The mere efifect of the weather upon the spirits of the troops may be a factor of success or failure. The character of an e.xtensive "terrain" is sometimes completely changed in a few hours by the weather. Thus, impassable lakes and swamps may be turned into firm ice overnight — or vice versa. One of the most picturesque epi- sodes in military history was the capture of a fleet of Dutch men-of-war by French cavalry in the year 1795. The vessels were frozen into the Zuyder Zee. A force of hussars under Gen. Devoynter, having wrapped their horses' hoofs in tow, crossed the ice and forced the whole fleet to surrender. During the Russo-Jap- anese war Russians made good use of a temporary tramway constructed over the ice of Lake Baikal.

In view of all these facts it is really amaz- ing that military authorities have been so .slow in recognizing the strategic and tactical value of weather science and the art of weather prediction. The present war is the first one in which meteorology has been called upon to play any partic- ularly definite part.

There is an interesting historical con- nection between weather forecasting and the art of warfare.

In the month of November, 18r)4, a tremendous gale shattered the camp of the Allied armies fighting against

���Russia in the Crimea, and sank the French warship Henri IV, lying off Se- bastopol. The famous French astrono- mer Le Verrier made a careful study of this storm. By collecting the weather records kept in various parts of Europe he was able to trace its course — to shov%- how it had swept in from the Atlantic and moved at a deliberate pace across the continent. He reached the conclusion that, by means of telegraphic reports, it would have been an easy matter to keep tab on the storm's progress and to give timely warning of its approach to the fleet and the army. This was the germ of the idea now embodied in the tele- graphic weather services maintained by all civilized countries. Le Verrier sub- mitted his plans to Napoleon III., and they were soon put in operation. Hence the Crimean storm of 1854 is a landmark in the history of practical meteorology, and weather forecasting received its first great impetus from the exigencies of war.

Making a

Soldier of

the Weather

Man

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��CJ I'r.-s- Illu^. SiTv.

Sometimes it is snow. Still more trouble. This rail- road picture was taken on the West-Galician front

��To-day meteorol- ogists are paying their debt to Mars. At the very be- ginning of the present struggle the German army put into the field a well organ- ized weather service. Practiced forecasters were at- tached to headquarters; posts for making weather observations were established on automobiles; kites and balloons were sent up to test the air currents for the information of aviators and the artillery. In Belgium the Germans promptly took possession of the Royal Observatory, near Brussels, and made it a center for their meteorological organization. Be- fore the war a German observatory had been established in far-away Spitzbergen, at the suggestion of Count Zeppelin, and

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