In an article on the “War Department” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for December, mention was made of the weather observations by the Signal Corps of the army. This novel service—novel both in its character and in its assignment to a military department—was commenced in 1870, under a resolution of Congress, approved February 9th of that year, which required the Secretary of War “To provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent, and at other points in the states and territories of the United States, and for giving notice on the northern lakes and on the sea coast, by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms;” and in June, 1872, the provisions of the service were extended to include “the agricultural and commercial interests” of the country. The plan of organization and the superintendence of the service were imposed upon the chief signal officer of the army, then General Albert J. Myer,[A] to whose memory the signal and the weather services are living monuments. If failures are of value in guiding succeeding attempts in the same line, General Myer had the advantage of a number, both in this country and Europe, but attributing those failures to a want of proper agents rather than to mistakes of method, and being thoroughly imbued with the idea that efficient service from a body of men employed in the same enterprise can be obtained only by enrolling them under the oath of enlistment as subjects of military discipline, he could adopt all the methods of operation which had already been tried by others, and, uniting with them his own, could undertake the work with a confidence in men as much as in measures, and make sure progress over the same road that had been too difficult for others to travel. The signal service, which had been organized by him as a special and distinct department of the army, was well prepared to operate the most important agent in the work, the magnetic telegraph, and it has constructed its lines over a great extent of country not yet reached by civilization, connecting frontier military posts with each other and with the lines owned and operated by private companies.