Autobiography

Question #12: In 1849 I made a series of very careful observations at regular hours for the whole month of August from which I discovered a slight lunar tide exactly like the ocean - This important fact was announced at the time in the newspapers - and the observations were communicated with the meteorological observations were communicated with the meteorological observations to the Smithsonian Institution. Many years afterwards (1863) Col. Graham made the same discovery at Chicago, the tide there being much larger than at Milwaukee.
The irregular fluctuations of water level - the changes of the seasons and of years are also shown by these observations. Since 1859 I have had charge of a self registering tide gauge at Milwaukee for the Lake Survey.
This fully confirms my discoveryand shows the height of the tide to be the same as by my observations a little less than one tenth of a foot.* I have made no discovery of a tide on Lake Huron as blunderingly stated in Appleton's Cyclopedia.
Capt Geo G. Meade and Gen G.B. Comstock have fully acknowledged the importance of these observations.

*See the report of Lake Survey for 1861 page 361.