Description
Although weather records had been kept by private individuals and some universities since the early 1800s both here and abroad, a full U.S. weather reporting service had to await development and expansion of the electric telegraph. Both farmers and coastal shippers pressed the U.S. Congress to establish a weather prediction facility. By 1870 a network of such stations was in place. By late summer of 1873, workmen had finished the crude two-room station at the top of Pikes Peak. A telegraph line snaked through brush, trees, and boulders to the lofty summit.
When daily logs and research records were completed, some of the Pikes Peak weather men amused themselves by writing tall tales, expanding on their already unusual adventures. Americans loved their stories and seldom disavowed the truth of sea monsters in Pikes Peak lakes, plagues of mountain rats, and mysterious volcanic eruptions. Their problems with governmental bureaucracy were at once humorous and sad. With fortitude and imagination these early meteorologists laid the groundwork for today’s sophisticated science of data-gathering satellites and computer models.
Book Information
ISBN 9780804009706
Author Phyllis Smith
Format Paperback
Page Count 126
Imprint Swallow Press
Publisher Ohio University Press