Albert James Myer

Chief Signal Officer, U.S. Army Albert James Myer
Albert James Myer (1828-1880)
Born	(1828-09-20)September 20, 1828 Newburgh, New York
Died	August 24, 1880(1880-08-24) (aged 51) Buffalo, New York
Buried at	Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1854–1880
Rank	Colonel Brevet Brigadier General
Commands held	U.S. Army Signal Corps
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Albert James Myer (September 20, 1828 – August 24, 1880) was a surgeon and United States Army officer. He is known as the father of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, as its first chief signal officer just prior to the American Civil War, the inventor of wig-wag signaling (or aerial telegraphy), and also as the father of the U.S. Weather Bureau.

Myer was born in Newburgh, New York, son of Henry Beekman Myer and Eleanor McClanahan Myer. The family moved to Western New York and after the death of his mother in 1834, he was raised primarily by his aunt in Buffalo. He worked as a telegrapher before entering Geneva College (now Hobart College) in Geneva, New York, in 1842, at age 13, and from where he was graduated in 1847 as a member of The Kappa Alpha Society. He received his M.D. degree from Buffalo Medical College in 1851, while working part-time for the New York State Telegraph Company. His doctoral thesis, A New Sign Language for Deaf Mutes, showed concepts that he later used for his invention of aerial telegraphy. Although he inherited a large fortune from his family, he was ambitious and intellectually curious. It was said "that he was specially noted for the manner in which he would take hold of an idea or principle, and, following it to its length and breadth, develop all there was in it or of it."

He engaged in private medical practice in Florida and then sought a commission as a U.S. Army assistant surgeon (lieutenant), entering service September 18, 1854, posted at Fort Duncan, Texas, and Fort Davis, Jeff Davis County, Texas. His major interest of the time, besides medicine, was to devise a system of signaling across long distances, using simple codes and lightweight materials. This system of codes using a single signal flag (or a lantern or kerosene torch at night), known as wig-wag signaling or aerial telegraphy, would be adopted and used by both sides in the Civil War and afterward.