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Cleveland Abbe

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"CLEVELAND ABBE (1838-1916), American meteorologist, was born in New York Dec. 3 1838. He studied astronomy under Briinnow and A. B. Gould, and spent a year at the Pulkovo Observatory, 1865-6, under Struve. He was assistant at the U.S. Naval Observatory, 1867-8, and Director of the Cincinnati Observatory, 1863-73. His success there in forecasting the weather from meteorological observations telegraphed from various points led to his being called to the U.S. Signal Service in 1871. Thereafter with Government aid he was enabled to extend the field of his forecasts and became the " Father of the Weather Bureau." The bureau was formally established in 1891 under the Department of Agriculture, and Abbe remained its head until his death Oct. 28 1916. To his initiative is largely due the introduction of the system of standardized time.

He was the author of Report on Standard Time (1879); Report on the Solar Eclipse of July 1879 (1881); An Account of Progress in Meteorology and Allied Subjects in the Years 1879-81 (1883); Treatise on Meteorological Apparatus and Methods (1888); Preliminary Studies in Storm and Weather Prediction (1889); Recent Progress in Dynamic Meteorology (1890); The Mechanics of the Earth's Atmosphere (3 vols. of translations, 1891-1910); The Physical Basis of Long-Range Forecasting (1902); The Progress of Science as Illustrated by the Development of Meteorology (1908); Notes on Balloons and on Waterspouts from the Voyage of La Perouse (1914) and The Introduction of Meteorology into Courses of Instruction in Mathematics and Physics (1915).