FERREL, William, American meteorolo gist: b. Bedford County, now Fulton County, Pa., 29 Jan. 1817; d. Maywood, Kansas, 18 Sept. 1891. He was graduated at Bethany College, Virginia, in 1844, and early attracted attention by his researches in meteorology, of which science he was the first to propound the funda mental principles. From 1844 to 1857 he taught school in Missouri and Tennessee. In the latter year he went, by invitation of the publisher of the 'American Ephemeris and Nautical Alma nac,' to Cambridge, Mass., and became associ ated in taking part in making the computations for this work. In 1867 he was appoined to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. From 1882 to 1886 he was an assistant in the Signal Service Bureau, and the maxima and minima tide-predicting machine which he invented has been used for many years in government coast surveys. After his 'resignation from public serv
ice, he moved to Kansas to live with his brothers and sisters. His official bibliography, published by the National Academy of Science, of which as well as of many other domestic and foreign scientific societies he was a member, contains 109 separate publications from his pen. By far the largest number of these were published in scientific journals and in the official reports of the various governmental departments with which he was connected. Of his larger works there were published in bookform (Tidal Re searches' (Washington 1874) ; Researches for the Use of the Coast Pilot' (3 parts, Washington 1877-82) ; 'Popular Treatise on the Winds, etc.> (New York 1889). Consult Abbe, C. 'Memoirs of J. H. Lane and W. Ferrel' (Washington 1892).