ALGUÉ, JOSÉ. — Spanish Jesuit and scientist, born in Manresa on 18 December 1856, died at Roquetas (Spain) on 27 May 1930. Having completed his ecclesiastical studies and received priestly ordination (1888), he was assigned to the Manila Observatory, then undergoing major development following its recognition by the Spanish government as the central meteorological office of the Philippines. After securing a solid technical education in Europe and America, A. arrived in Manila in 1894; three years later, upon the death of Fr. Faura, he became director of the observatory and remained so until 1924, representing it at numerous international congresses, exhibitions, and expeditions. After the American conquest of 1898, he succeeded in having the new authorities recognize the institution’s merits, especially in reporting cyclones, and it became the center of the official network of the “Weather Bureau.”
Fr. A. directed the publication, at the expense of the United States government, of the imposing collection of scientific data on the Philippines prepared by the Jesuits of the Observatory: El Archipiélago Filipino, Colección de datos geográficos..., 2 vols., Washington 1900, as well as an Atlas de Filipinos. Among his other writings, the principal one is Bagulos y ciclones Filipinos, Manila 1897, later reworked in English as The cyclones of the Far East, 1904, and translated into various languages (Die Orkane des Jernen Ostens, by Bergholz, Bremen 1900, is a plagiarism of it). Fr. A. invented a reflecting zenith telescope for calculating variations in latitude, but he became better known for his “barocyclonemeter,” an aneroid barometer fitted with graduated circles for calculating the distance and direction of cyclones; the instrument was universally used by the sailors of those seas, but has now been replaced by radio-telegraphic warnings.