SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. ARMY. That branch of the army to which is assigned the duty of maintaining communication between headquarters and all branches of the military service. In the United Str‘tes Army this duty is assigned to a special corps, who are expert in the use of flag, heliograph, pyrotechnic, telephone, and tele graph signals, the building of telegraph lines and ocean cables, the management of carrier pigeons, the deciphering of secret ciphers, and the devising of new systems of cipher, the use of balloons, and in fact every method of communi cation that can be or has been devised. See SIGNALING AND TELEGRAPIIING. MILITARY.
The Signal Corps of the United States Army dates officially from the appointment of Major Albert J. Myer in 1860 as chief signal officer. His system of military signals by means of flags was an improvement upon the semaphore tele graph, which had been used since 1790 in Europe and to a slight extent in America. The Signal Corps received a separate and systematic organ ization by act of March 3, 1863, and its members served with great efficiency on all fields of battle and even on naval vessels. At the close of the
war it was again reorganized by the act of July 28. 1S66, but in a very unsatisfactory manner, and a school of instruction was established at Fort Whipple. now Fort Myer, near Washington, D. C. By act of Congress, February 9, 1870. the Secretary of War was authorized to provide for the taking of meteorological observations throughout the country and for the prediction of storms; he assigned this duty to the chief signal officer of the army. Eventually it became ap parent that the meteorological work was more important than the military work and that it could be quite as well done by civilian organiza tion. Therefore, on July 1, 1891, an act of Con gress took effect by virtue of which a Weather Bureau (q.v.) proper was organized in the De partment of Agriculture and all the men and the duties relating thereto were transferred to it from the War Department. On the other hand, the Signal Corps of the United States Army was at the same time reorganized so as to contain ten commissioned officers and 50 en listed men as sergeants.