Account of the new Magnetical Observatory at Gottingen. 347 



with Gambey's apparatus in other places, some of which are 

 very remote 'from each other. Till now, such observations have 

 been made here three times, viz. on the 20 — 21 March, 4 — 5 

 May, and 21 — 22 June; and the persons engaged in it were, 

 besides Mr. Gauss, the Professors Weber and Ulrich, Doctors 

 Weber, Goldschmidt, and Listing, and Messrs. Sartorius, 

 Deahna, and Wilh. Gauss. The object of these observations 

 is, partly to obtain gradually a fuller acquaintance with the re- 

 gular course [of the phenomena], partly to discover the nature 

 of the very great anomalies occurring at times, especially with 

 aurora) boreales, by contemporaneous observations in different 

 places. The notings here were made in March, at intervals of 

 20 minutes, and even of half that time; in May, every 10 and 

 even 5 minutes; and in June, always at intervals of 5 minutes. 

 Some anomalies were observed, particularly a few very great 

 ones in the night of the 20 to 21 March; very considerable 

 and numerous ones in the night of the 4 — 5 May; and some 

 decided, though not great ones, on the 21 June, whilst the 

 22nd of that month was exceedingly regular. We have as 

 yet heard nothing of the results of corresponding observa- 

 tions instituted at the suggestion of M. de Humboldt, except 

 of those made at Berlin on the 21 — 22 March, which were, 

 however, only noted from hour to hour, and could, therefore, 

 furnish no satisfactory results. Still they contained an indica- 

 tion of the anomalies noted and pursued at Gottingen. On the 

 other hand corresponding observations were made very fully 

 on the 4 — 5 May, by Mr. Sartorius, in a country house in 

 Bavaria, a few miles south of Meiningen, with an apparatus 

 on the same principle as that of our observatory, although 

 smaller; which produced a most wonderful agreement with 

 the great anomalies observed here, as to time, magnitude and 

 variations, so that in their noting they appear almost copies 

 of each other in all the mixed figures produced by those ano- 

 malies. An equally beautiful result was obtained by corre- 

 sponding observations made in Berlin on the 21 — 22 by Pro- 

 fessor Encke, assisted by Messrs. PoggendorfF, Madler, and 

 Wolfers, for the first time with an apparatus like ours, al- 

 though likewise smaller. Also there were no other anomalies 

 but those observed here ; but these were almost exact copies ; 

 and the same was shown by the observations made at that 

 time at Francfort by Mr. Sartorius. These results may al- 

 ready be considered as a beautiful effect of preconcerted ob- 

 servations, since they clearly show that both the small and great 

 anomalies in the magnetic needle, which are observed some- 

 times at very short intervals, must be ascribed to causes by 

 no means local, but powerful ones and operating at great 



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