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The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Questions of Meteorological Science & Its Applications, 1881
[The following narrative is taken from Frederick W. True’s Semi-centennial history of the National Academy of Sciences, A History of the First Half-Century of the National Academy of Sciences 1863-1913, pp. 290.]
This committee was appointed in 1881 at the request of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army. The Proceedings of the Academy contain the following information regarding it:
“A communication was laid before the Academy from General William B. Hazen, Chief Signal Officer, United States Army, under date of April 4, 1881, asking that a permanent committee be appointed with whom the Signal Officer might confer from time to time as to the best means of advancing the science of meteorology and its applications to the benefit of agriculture and commerce.
“The following-named members were thereupon appointed by the President a Committee on Meteorology to confer and co-operate with the Chief Signal Officer: Mr. Newcomb, chairman, and Messrs. Loomis, Gibbs (W.), Newton (H. A.), Ferrel, Schott, and Langley.
“Messrs. Rood and Young were subsequently added to the Committee.” [Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 1, pp. 181, 182.]
In his report for 1881, General Hazen comments on the appointment of the committee in the following terms:
“The weather service of the United States has been without a rival in the practical advantages derived from its labors, but the day has now come when it should take the stand among the foremost, in the scientific study and investigation of the higher branches of theoretical meteorology, and it is upon such investigations intelligently pursued that the hope for greater benefits must mainly rest. I have endeavored to bring this service into active sympathy and co-operation with the ablest scientific intellects of the country. In this direction and in response to my request, the National Academy of Sciences has appointed an advisory committee of consulting specialists with which I may confer as occasion demands. I take pleasure in acknowledging this courtesy as showing the establishment of more intimate relations between the scientific interests of the United States and the Signal Service.” [Rep. Chief Signal Officer of the Army, p. 3 (1881) (Wm. B. Hazen).
The committee appears not to have presented any formal reports but was continued until 1884, when it was discharged. At this time the Academy had been requested by a Joint Commission of Congress to express its opinion as to the meteorological work carried out under the Signal Service. 
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