Railway Weather Signals

Abstract

WITH reference to the notice given in NATURE, vol. xxxiv. p. 347, of the ingenious plan adopted by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute for disseminating its weather reports, it may not be known to all of your readers that a similar system of signals has been in use for some time on the railroads in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Canada. The day signals there consist of sheet-iron disks about three feet in diameter, and are displayed on the side of baggage-cars. The signals are shaped like the sun, a crescent, or a star, and differ in colour, being red or blue. The red colour refers to the temperature, and the blue to the state of the weather, as rainfall or snow. This system of signals was first brought into practical operation by Prof. T. C. Mendenhall, Chief of the Ohio Meteorological Bureau.