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Cleveland Abbe (December 3, 1838 in New York City – December 29, 1916 in Chevy Chase, Maryland) was a famous American meteorologist and advocate of time zones. While director of the Cincinnati Observatory in Cincinnati, Ohio, he developed a system of telegraphic weather reports, daily weather maps, and weather forecasts. Congress in 1870 established the U.S. Weather Bureau and inaugurated the use of daily weather forecasts. In recognition of his work, Abbe, who was often known as Old Probability for the reliability of his forecasts, was appointed the first head of the new service. Download high resolution version (700x1053, 144 KB) Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce [1] Cleveland Abbe Source http://www. ...
Download high resolution version (700x1053, 144 KB) Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce [1] Cleveland Abbe Source http://www. ...
December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
| Jöns Jakob Berzelius, discoverer of protein 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...
December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 2 days remaining. ...
1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ...
Chevy Chase is the name of both a town and an unincorporated Census-Designated Place in Montgomery County, Maryland (see Chevy Chase (CDP), Maryland). ...
Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Area Ranked 42nd - Total 12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²) - Width 90 miles (145 km) - Length 249 miles (400 km) - % water 21 - Latitude 37°53N to 39°43N - Longitude 75°4W to 79°33...
Meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting. ...
Time Zone is also a historical computer game. ...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
Official language(s) None Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus Largest metro area Cleveland Area Ranked 34th - Total 44,825 sq mi (116,096 km²) - Width 220 miles (355 km) - Length 220 miles (355 km) - % water 8. ...
1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a scientific agency of the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere. ...
Early life
Abbe grew up in a prosperous merchant family in New York City. In school, he excelled in mathematics and chemistry, and graduated from the Free Academy in 1857. He then taught engineering for two years at the University of Michigan while at the same time studying astronomy under Franz Brunnow at the University. When the Civil War broke out, Abbe tried to join the Union Army; however, he failed the vision test and spent the War years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working as an assistant to Benjamin Gould (astronomer and head of Longitude Department of the United States Coast Survey). Abbe then studied abroad in Russia and later returned to the U.S. eager to study astronomy. In 1868 he was hired by the Cincinnati Astronomical Society, however, the organization lacked funding and Abbe lost his job less than a year later. It was at this point that Abbe made the decision that would change his entire career path. Remembering that meteorological conditions directly affect the work of astronomers, Abbe decided to begin working in the field of meteorology. He won approval to report on and predict the weather, working on the premise that forecasts could and should be generated at minimal expense and in such a way as to perhaps even produce income. The College of the City of New York was: The former name of the City College of New York The former name of the City University of New York This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (UM, U of M or U-M) is a coeducational public research university in the state of Michigan. ...
Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow (November 18, 1821 – August 20, 1891) was a German astronomer. ...
Benjamin Apthorp Gould (September 27, 1824 – November 26, 1896) was an American astronomer. ...
A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant Astronomy is the science of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere (such as auroras and cosmic background radiation). ...
Meteorological career In order to compile his information, Abbe required a time-keeping system that was consistent between the stations. To accomplish this he divided the United States into four standard time zones. In 1883, Abbe convinced North American railroad companies to adopt his time zone system. In 1884, Britain, which had already adopted its own standard time system for England, Scotland, and Wales, helped gather international consent for global time zones.
One of the first things that Abbe addressed was the forecasting dimension of meteorology. He recognized that predicting the weather required a widespread, yet coordinated, team. And so, with short term funding granted form the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, Abbe enlisted twenty volunteer weather observers to help report conditions. Western Union agreed to permit the observers to communicate without charge, and Abbe and his team began work. Abbe selected data-collecting instruments that would be critical to the success of weather predicting, and trained Army observer sergeants in their use. Field data was transmitted using code designed to minimize word count, and at the designated times, information flooded the transmission stations. Clerks would then decode and record the messages, and manually enter data onto weather maps, which were then used to predict the weather. Chambers of commerce are business advocacy groups which are usually not associated with government. ...
Western Union (NYSE: WU) is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. ...
On February 19th, 1871, Abbe personally gave the first official weather report. He continued to forecast alone for the next six months, while simultaneously training others. He was joined in mid-1871 by two army lieutenants and a civilian professor in giving reports, and the team was then able to rotate the heavy workload. Abbe demanded precise language in the forcasts, and made sure every forecast covered four key meteorological elements: weather (clouds and precipitation), temperature, wind direction, and barometric pressure. By the end of the first year of reporting, over sixty copies of weather charts went to Congress, the press, and various scientific institutions. By 1872, Abbe regularly sent over five hundred sets of daily maps and bulletins overseas in exchange for European meteorological data. Abbe also insisted on verifying predictions. During the first year of operation in 1871, Abbe and his staff verified 69% of their predications; the annual report apologized for the other 31%, citing the pressure of time as the cause.
Abbe required that the weather service stay at the forefront of technology. Over time, the instrument division at the headquarters tested and calibrated thousands of devices, and even began to design and build their own instruments. By the end of the century, self-registering equipment came into use and the United States lead the meteorological world with 114 Class I (automatic recording) observation stations. Anticipating an increase in international cooperation, Abbe began to seek quality instruments calibrated to international standards. He enlisted Wolcott Gibbs of Harvard and Arthur Wright of Yale to design improved equipment. For comparison purposes, Abbe ordered a barometer from Heinrich Wild (director of the Nicholas Central Observatory in Russia), as well as an anemometer and several types of hygrometers from Germany. Abbe then invented an anemobarometer to test the effect of chimney and window drafts on barometers in enclosed spaces. Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (February 21, 1822 - December 9, 1908), United States chemist, was born at New York. ...
Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ...
Arthur Williams Wright (1836-1915) was an American physicist, born at Lebanon, Conn. ...
“Yale†redirects here. ...
Heinrich Wild I (1833-1902) was a Swiss meteorologist and physicist. ...
In 1912 the Royal Meteorological Society presented Abbe with the Symons Memorial Gold Medal, citing his contribution “to instrumental, statistical, dynamical, and thermo dynamical meteorology and forecasting.” Abbe died in 1916, after a lifetime of outstanding scientific achievement. The Royal Meteorological Society traces its origins back to April 3, 1850 when the British Meteorological Society was formed as a society the objects of which should be the advancement and extension of meteorological science by determining the laws of climate and of meteorological phenomena in general. ...
Publications Abbe was also a genealogist, writing the history of his paternal family in the book The Abbe-Abbey Genealogy which was co-authored with Josephine Nichols. His other publications include: - Annual Summary and Review of Progress in Meteorology (1873-88)
- Treatise on Meteorological Apparatus and Methods (1887)
- Preliminary Studies for Storm and Weather Predictions (1889)
- The Mechanics of the Earth's Atmosphere (1891)
- Physical Basis of Long Range Forecastings (1902)
- Relations between Climates and Crops (1905)
- Mechanics of the Earth's Atmosphere (third coll. 1911)
Reference The New International Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia first published in the 1910s. ...
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