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 itstruck the point where the camera had stood.
(This is one of the best tornado photographs in the world and has notbeen 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 inall ages have stirred the human race to fear and wonder. All the greatstories and legends of the world began as weather stories. Thelightnings were the thunderbolts of Jove, the thunder was the rolling ofcelestial chariot-wheels, and the rains of spring were a goddess weepingfor 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 theancients did, yet we know but little still. The hurricane does not comeunheralded to our shores, the freezing grip of a cold wave is forecastin time to enable us to fight it, the lightning is tamed by the metalfinger we thrust upward to the sky. But the tornado sweeps its funnel ofdeath over our cities in spite of all we do, the cloudburst falls whereit will, and rivers rush to flood with the melting of the snows upon thedistant mountains.
There is no battle greater than the battle with the Weather, which isboth our enemy and our ally. Death and disaster are the price we payfor ignorance. Great victories have been won by knowledge. Galveston'ssea-wall dared and defeated the hurricane, the levees of the Mississippihave held captive many a flood, and our myriad spears of defence havesnatched at the power of the lightning flash and hurled it harmlessly tothe ground.
We are not slaves to the demons of the Weather, now—not as we oncewere. The United States Weather Bureau, day by day, draws closer andcloser the chains which bind the untrammeled violence of sun and storm.High, high in the atmosphere, is a world all unexplored, w