THE ENGLISH OBSERVATORIES. 533 



years, the signal was given by a time-ball, as at Greenwich, Glasgow, 

 and elsewhere ; this is a great ball suspended from an elevated stand- 

 ard, and made to fall at a precise moment by means of electrical 

 mechanism. Unfortunately, the Edinburgh Observatory is a victim 

 to the centralizing tendencies that rule now in England ; its budget is 

 very much reduced, and it is hardly permitted to vegetate. The 

 Royal Observatory of Dublin, founded in 1774, and now under the 

 direction of Mr. Brunnow, Astronomer Royal for Ireland, is not in 

 much better condition. On the contrary, the observatory of the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow, and the Ecclesiastical Observatory of Armagh, 

 founded by the Irish primate, are well operated, and render real 

 service. 



The celebrated establishment of Kew, which depends at the same 

 time upon the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and 

 upon the Royal Society of London, is the central meteorological ob- 

 servatory of England ; new apparatus and new methods are studied 

 there ; besides, astronomy, so called, increases its resources by the 

 application of photography to the study of celestial phenomena. Mr. 

 Warren de La Rue has here inaugurated his process of solar observa- 

 tion by the aid of photoheliography, the first decisive step in the emi- 

 nently fruitful path, the earliest idea of which is due to two French 

 scientists, MM. Fizeau and Leon Foucault. 



Mr. Warren de La Rue, who very recently presided over the Astro- 

 nomical Society of London, is the largest paper-manufacturer in Eng- 

 land, and a noteworthy improvement in photographic paper is due 

 to him. He had since 1852 a small observatory at his house in Can- 

 onbury, at London, where he undertook his first essays in celestial 

 photography. Five years later, he transported it to the village of 

 Cranford, at the west of Loudon, and since then he has divided his 

 leisure time between this residence, where he studied the moon, and 

 Kew. where solar investigations were carried on under his direction. 

 At the same time, he has given his attention to the improvement of 

 optical instruments. He made himself the mirror of a telescope that 

 he used in most of his observations. But these labors injured his eye- 

 sight, and, despairing of being able any longer to make observations 

 himself, he has presented his magnificent collection of instruments to 

 the University of Oxford. 



Rich merchants and opulent manufacturers have done themselves 

 honor in founding a series of small observatories, that by their useful 

 labors have assisted the progress of science. That of Mr. Bishop, for 

 instance, erected at first near Regent's Park, then transported to 

 Twickenham, where Messrs. Hind and Pogson discovered so many 

 asteroids ; that of Mr. Barclay, the brewer, at Leyton, near London ; 

 that of Mr. Lassell, near Liverpool. Like the elder Herschel and Lord 

 Rosse, Mr. Lassell made with his own hands the mirrors of his tele- 

 scopes, by whose aid he discovered the satellites of Neptune, Saturn, 



