A National Weather Service Publication In Support of The
Celebration of American Weather Services ...Past, Present and
Future Personal View of C. F. von Herrmann For a brief period of
time I served as clerk in the Chief Office then on "G" Street,
copying from original records into large volumes intended for
publication, comparing data etc. General Hazen, of course, was
Chief Signal Officer at that time. While at work there the
surviving members of the Greely expedition returned and I was
thrown into contact with one of the members of that expedition
who was assigned to my room for duty, Sergeant Brainard. While
at Ft. Myer, we inherited...rather dubious tricks by which we
endeavored to make everything as easy for ourselves as possible.
This refers chiefly to the military training, the signal
practice by flags in the day time and by torches at night. The
latter form of signalling was especially laborious, and often
practice messages were arranged beforehand between the two
parties, the one at home and the othe