ITEMS OF INTEREST September 29, 1906 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

After quietly experimenting with long range weather forecasting all summer and meeting with success, the United States Weather Bureau announces that it is ready to enter upon a new departure by predicting weather conditions in advance for periods of several days at a time, supplementing the regular twenty-four hour bulletins of the Weather Bureau. The experiments conducted this summer were forecasts for six days at a time. Professor Moore, Chief of the Department, said: "These predictions are to be made by studying the distribution of barometric areas. The Weather Bureau has been steadily enlarging its scope in that direction. As an instance, I may cite the fact that we have just made arrangements for receiving daily cable reports from the weather stations of Russia. The Russian meteorological service has agreed to furnish us with readings daily from a number of stations. Already we are getting these daily reports from the west coast of Europe, from the West Indies, from Bermuda, the Azores, the Bahamas, and Honolulu, all by cable. In a few months we will have the daily readings from the interior of Alaska and probably within a year from Iceland. In other words we have an extensive system taking in nearly the whole of the Northern Hemisphere, and we will receive daily weather reports from a chain of stations encircling more than four-fifths of the globe. As our weather conditions are governed almost entirely by movements in the region of the equator, it can be readily seen that the more comprehensive system will enable the Weather Bureau to increase its operations."

The opening of bids for the establishment of pneumatic tube service in New York and other cities, under authorization of Congress, which appropriated $1,250,000 a year for ten years for the service, showed not only high prices and a lack of competition, but that for five cities—Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Kansas City, and San Francisco, where Congress authorized the establishment of the new service—no proposals were submitted at all. It is announced that the Department will not make any award until further efforts have been made to secure proposals for the cities for which none were received. The character of the bids leads to the belief that either the pneumatic tube contractors find no profit in the operation of the tubes, or else that some sort of combination exists among the companies interested which has forced competition out of the field. The Post Office Department fixes $17,000 a mile as the maximum rate that will be accepted.

Further rulings in connection with the enforcement of the meat inspection law after Oct. 1, just made public by the Secretary of Agriculture, give an idea of what consumers are to expect hereafter when purchasing meat products, particularly canned goods. Anything savoring of a false or deceptive name will not be tolerated, and no picture, design, or device which gives any false indication of origin or quality will be permitted upon any label, as, for example, the picture of a pig appearing on a label placed upon beef products, or the picture of a chicken upon the label of a veal or pork product. Geographical names are allowed to be used only with the words "cut," "type," "brand," or "style," as the case may be, except upon foods produced or manufactured in the place, State, Territory, or country named. For instance "Virginia ham" must be marked "Virginia style ham."

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