The Boy with the U.S. Weather Men | 
 enlarge | Author: Francis Rolt-wheeler
Publisher: Celtic Giraffe Books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $4.00
Buy New: $3.20
You Save: $0.80 (20%)
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Publication Date: September 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
PREFACE
The savage fury of the tempest and the burning splendor of the sun in
all ages have stirred the human race to fear and wonder. All the great
stories and legends of the world began as weather stories. The
lightnings were the thunderbolts of Jove, the thunder was the rolling of
celestial chariot-wheels, and the rains of spring were a goddess weeping
for her daughter, Nature, held a captive in the icy prison of Winter.
We know a great deal more about the forces of the Weather than the
ancients did, yet we know but little still. The hurricane does not come
unheralded to our shores, the freezing grip of a cold wave is forecast
in time to enable us to fight it, the lightning is tamed by the metal
finger we thrust upward to the sky. But the tornado sweeps its funnel of
death over our cities in spite of all we do, the cloudburst falls where
it will, and rivers rush to flood with the melting of the snows upon the
distant mountains.
There is no battle greater than the battle with the Weather, which is
both our enemy and our ally. Death and disaster are the price we pay
for ignorance. Great victories have been won by knowledge. Galveston's
sea-wall dared and defeated the hurricane, the levees of the Mississippi
have held captive many a flood, and our myriad spears of defence have
snatched at the power of the lightning flash and hurled it harmlessly to
the ground.
We are not slaves to the demons of the Weather, now--not as we once
were. The United States Weather Bureau, day by day, draws closer and
closer the chains which bind the untrammeled violence of sun and storm.
High, high in the atmosphere, is a world all unexplored, where no man
can dwell; where, as yet, no human-made instrument has reached. This
unknown world calls for explorers, it calls for adventure, it calls for
daring and patient work. It is for Man to tame the forces of the sky,
and tame them he must and will. To show how much the Weather Bureau is
accomplishing, to depict the marvels of its work, to portray the
ruthless ferocity of the forces as yet uncontrolled and to reveal the
gripping fascination of this work, in which every American boy may join,
is the aim and purpose of
THE AUTHOR.
|
|
|
