26 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



novel character, as, with an aperture of two feet, the focal 

 length will be only ten feet, the diameter being larger in 

 proportion than that of any telescope heretofore constructed. 

 The lens is to be of glass, coated with pure silver, instead of 

 being polished metal. The instrument is intended to be 

 employed especially for photographic and spectroscopic pur- 

 poses, and will be mounted so as to be perfectly free from 

 any tremor. The whole apparatus will be completed and in 

 operation by December. 22 A, September 7, 1872, 230. 



GEEAT TELESCOPE FOE WASHINGTON AND LEE COLLEGE. 



Mr. Leander J. M'Cormick, of Chicago, has ordered of 

 Messrs. Alvan Clark & Co. a telescope of 26-inch aperture, 

 the exact duplicate of the one now being constructed for the 

 United States government. It is stated that Mr. M'Cor- 

 mick's order having been given first, his instrument will be 

 first completed, and that, when ready for use, it will be pre- 

 sented to the Washington and Lee College, of Lexington, 

 Virginia. Mr. M'Cormick also proposes, in addition to this 

 telescope, to present a transit and other instruments re- 

 quired for the furnishing of a first-class astronomical observ- 

 atory. 



These two instruments will then be the largest in the 

 world; the next in size being one in London, 22 inches, one 

 in Chicago, 18| inches; and one of 15 inches at Cambridge. 



EEPORT OF U. S. ASTEONOMICAL OBSEEVATOEY FOE 1869. 



A very well printed report of the astronomical and mete- 

 orological observations made at the United States Naval 

 Observatory during the year 1869, under the direction of the 

 superintendent, Admiral F. B. Sands, has been published at 

 the Congressional printing-office. This volume, forming a 

 stately quarto of over nine hundred pages, is prefaced by a 

 detailed account of the transit circle, the meridian transit 

 instrument, the mural circle, and the equatorial of the ob- 

 servatory, and followed by a statement of observations made 

 with these instruments. 



The volume also contains the meteorological observations 

 for 1869, the positions of the sun, moon, and planets during 

 that year, as made with different instruments, etc. The re- 

 port of the total eclipse of December 22, 1870, which has al- 



