The station service necessarily commenced under the disadvantage of having no observers of experience, but there was only one way to get them, and the beginning of the work was the commencement of the education of the men who were to perform it. At this time there is not only the course of instruction at Fort Myer, but men as assistants at stations are perfecting themselves to occupy the places of those who have become masters in the profession, or to take charge of new places. The telegraph stations number about one hundred and fifty, and at each one is an “Observer Sergeant,” with one or more assistants. Their equipment in instruments is similar to that which has been mentioned in connection with the central office, viz.: For ascertaining the temperature of the air; the weight or pressure and relative humidity of the atmosphere; the direction, force, and velocity of the wind; and the depth of the rainfall; also at river stations for taking the temperature of the water, and for measuring its rise or fall; and at display stations signal flags and lanterns are included. The observers take the record from their instruments at regular intervals every day and night, Sundays and holidays included. There are three of these observations—taken at 7:00 a. m., 3:00 p. m., and 11:00 p. m., Washington time—telegraphed to the central office. Those taken at other hours are not telegraphed unless called for, but are recorded and enter into the weekly and monthly mail reports. The dispatch is in cipher, which permits the sending of a long message in from five to twelve words, giving pressure, temperature, direction, and velocity of wind, depth of rain or snow fall, appearance and movement of clouds and any special meteorological phenomena present, and adding from river and coast stations the stage of water in the rivers and the ocean swell. By preconcerted arrangements with telegraph companies, the reports pass over the wires without delay or interruption, and all reach the central office within about forty minutes after the observations are taken. They are at once translated and entered upon graphic charts—outline maps of the United States—on which each station is marked by its geographical location. By the use of symbols and figures all the meteorological conditions of each locality are exhibited, and so perfect is the system of arrangement for reporting and drafting that in less than two hours from the time the record was taken by the “Observers,” the officer who is to make the weather predictions has all the reports before him in the central office.