In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

In November 1898, in Manila Bay onboard the bridge of the flagship of the American fleet, the Olympia, a carefully arranged meeting between Admiral Dewey and the Jesuit meteorologist Father José Algué was to pave the way for the reorganization of the Manila Weather Observatory under American rule.1 But this momentous meeting was to do more. Dewey had already demonstrated to the world in stunning fashion that America’s most important weapon as an emergent colonial power in the eastern Pacific was its navy. He realized that the potentially devastating consequences of extreme weather in the Asian Pacific Basin was as great a nemesis as the enemy in terms of sending ships, even entire fleets, to the bottom of the sea in cyclonic storms. With this in mind, admirals of the American fleet stationed in Manila Bay had already visited the Manila Observatory and were enormously impressed by its meteorological and scientific work. The admirals recognized in Algué’s character and intellect a“scientific superman” and a skillful, articulate, Spanish Jesuit administrator. The November meeting between Dewey and Algué resulted in a marriage between Jesuit science and American imperialism with powerful implications for both partners. Algué’s extraordinary, pioneering scientific account of the climate and storms of the Philippines, Baguios ó ciclones filipinos: Estudio teórico-práctico (Baguios or Filipino Cyclones: A Study in Theory and Practice), published the year before, “took a prominent place in the literature on cyclonology” and was a volume much prized by navigators.2 A revised and expanded English edition of this special report was published in 1904 as Cyclones of the Far East. Also in 1897, Father Algué had given the public his barocyclonometer—an improvement on Father Faura’s invention—by means of which storms could be foretold not only in the Philippines but throughout the entire Orient.3 Scientific Superman Father José Algué, Jesuit Meteorology, and the Philippines under American Rule, 1897–1924 james francis warren 508 The United States recognized that supporting Algué’s work was a pragmatic policy that could help establish America’s future success as a colonial power in the Philippines.4 The greatest impetus to this development occurred when Dean Worcester and Charles Denby, two members of the Schurmann Commission, appointed in January 1899, initiated arrangements for the establishment of an independent Philippine weather service patterned after that of the United States. These commissioners recommended Algué as director, and the existing Manila Observatory House was to become the central office of the Weather Bureau. Algué was asked to draft a plan for a weather service in the Philippines and on May 22, 1901, with new equipment supplied from America, he was able to reorganize the Observatorio to encompass the Weather Bureau.5 In 1897,Algué had succeeded Father Federico Faura, the founder of the Manila Observatory, as director of the Jesuit institution.6 A Spanish-born Jesuit, Algué had been sent to Washington by the order to train for this leadership position, and that cultural encounter and experience prepared him to direct the observatory during the difficult period of the changeover from Spanish to U.S. sovereignty , at which time he“won the respect of Filipinos, Spaniards and Americans.” Through his handling of the negotiations he was able to effect the transfer of the observatory from Spanish to American administration without the loss of a single day’s pay for his employees.7 After the administrative transfer there was practically no change in personnel with the exception of the gradual introduction of English-speaking staff as several American-trained Jesuits arrived from the United States. The American officials recognized that the newly constituted Weather Bureau was unique because the majority of its officers and employees were Filipino. These employees included first-, second-, third-, and fourth-class observers, calculators, clerks, draftsmen, and the highly skilled mechanics who repaired and constructed the numerous precision instruments used by the bureau.8 Many had been recruited, trained, and assigned to postings throughout the archipelago where they were authorized to make synchronous weather predictions for their areas and to telegraph local conditions to the Manila office. Under Algué’s able leadership, as telegraph and cable lines were extended throughout the archipelago, the scale of service and efficiency of the newly constituted Philippine Weather Bureau increased. The rapid increase in real-time teletechnologies must be understood as a technological development in the name of imperialism. It had particular significance...

Share