The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men, by Francis William Rolt-Wheeler

Title: The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men

Author: Francis William Rolt-Wheeler

Release Date: July 26, 2007 [eBook #22156]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY WITH THE U. S. WEATHER MEN***

E-text prepared by Steven desJardins
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

U. S. SERVICE SERIES.

THE BOY WITH THE U. S. WEATHER MEN

BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER

With Seventy-two Illustrations from Photographs

BOSTON

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

The Funnel of Death.

Photograph of a tornado in Kansas, taken less than a minute before it struck the point where the camera had stood.

(This is one of the best tornado photographs in the world and has not been retouched.)

Courtesy of Geo. S. Bliss, U.S. Weather Bureau, Philadelphia, Pa.

Published, September, 1917

Copyright, 1917 By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.

All rights reserved

The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men

Norwood Press

BERWICK & SMITH CO

NORWOOD, MASS.

U. S. A.

PREFACE

The savage fury of the tempest and the burning splendor of the sun in all ages have stirred the human race to fear and wonder. All the great stories and legends of the world began as weather stories. The lightnings were the thunderbolts of Jove, the thunder was the rolling of celestial chariot-wheels, and the rains of spring were a goddess weeping for her daughter, Nature, held a captive in the icy prison of Winter.

We know a great deal more about the forces of the Weather than the ancients did, yet we know but little still. The hurricane does not come unheralded to our shores, the freezing grip of a cold wave is forecast in time to enable us to fight it, the lightning is tamed by the metal finger we thrust upward to the sky. But the tornado sweeps its funnel of death over our cities in spite of all we do, the cloudburst falls where it will, and rivers rush to flood with the melting of the snows upon the distant mountains.

There is no battle greater than the battle with the Weather, which is both our enemy and our ally. Death and disaster are the price we pay for ignorance. Great victories have been won by knowledge. Galveston's sea-wall dared and defeated the hurricane, the levees of the Mississippi have held captive many a flood, and our myriad spears of defence have snatched at the power of the lightning flash and hurled it harmlessly to the ground.

We are not slaves to the demons of the Weather, now—not as we once were. The United States Weather Bureau, day by day, draws closer and closer the chains which bind the untrammeled violence of sun and storm. High, high in the atmosphere, is a world all unexplored, where no man can dwell; where, as yet, no human-made instrument has reached. This unknown world calls for explorers, it calls for adventure, it calls for daring and patient work. It is for Man to tame the forces of the sky, and tame them he must and will. To show how much the Weather Bureau is accomplishing, to depict the marvels of its work, to portray the ruthless ferocity of the forces as yet uncontrolled and to reveal the gripping fascination of this work, in which every American boy may join, is the aim and purpose of

The Author.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS