ifiite Royal Society. 



17*. It is very much to be desii-ed that Weber's direct process, 

 and the indirect method founded on estimating, according to 

 Joule's principles, the mechanical value of the thermal effects of 

 a galvanic current, should be both put in practice to determine the 

 absolute resistance of the same conductor, or that the resistance 

 of two conductors to which the two methods have been separately 

 applied, should be accurately compared. Such an investigation 

 could scarcely be expected to give a more approximate value of 

 the mechanical equivalent of a thei^nal unit than has been already 

 found by means of experiments on the friction of fluids ; but it 

 would afford a most interesting illustration of those principles 

 by which ]\Ir. Joule has shown how to trace an equivalence be- 

 tween work spent and mechanical effect produced, in all physical 

 agencies in which heat is concerned. 



f I J / J 1 1 1 



Nov. 19, 1851. t. ,. . .. ^. .-r r. 



fli 3TU.1 LXXX. Proceedings of Learned Societies, 



: e-'^Lf ^Ir ^niiqH m .n^'uiS^OYAL SOCIETY. ' i^ 



[Continued from p. 600.] 



*'/^N the Mean Temperature of the Observatory at Highfield 

 ^^ House, near Nottingham, from the year 1810 to 1850." 

 By Edward Joseph Lowe, Esq., F.R.A.S. Communicated by Mar- 

 shall Hall, M.D., F.R.S. 



The object of the author in this communication is to connect the 

 series of thermometrical observations made by the late Matthew Need- 

 ham, Esq., at Lenton House, at the distance of only 200 yards from 

 the observatory of Highfield House, with those made by himself from 

 184'2 to the present time at the latter place. He procured Mr. Need- 

 ham's observations from the Committee of the Bromley House Li« 

 brary, Nottingham, and also the instrument with which they were 

 made, and which, upon comparison with his own standard, was found 

 by Mr. Glaisher to be correct. 



Mr. Needhara's observations were registered at 8 a.m. and 1 1 p.m., 

 and to the monthly means of these records corrections have been 

 applied to convert them into mean monthly values. Those made by 

 the author were registered at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., and these, together 

 with the highest and lowest readings of self- registering thermometers, 

 have been subjected to the same process. 



The folloM ing tables deduced from the observations are given in 

 the paper: — 



1. The meatt t^Aiperatiireo^ tid^li month at Highfield House from 

 tSlOto 1850. ' <f ^^•>«H'nr — .,[^ U. ^'Muu-vnruv^^ ^^1^ i.^ -;:ra ,-■' 



('From this table iW^ded^ddd tli'^ rt^feft't^rtipf^kure bf'each moiith 



ffom all the observations, viz. 



• '^January 36°-2; February 3 8°-9 ; March 42^4; April 47^*6; May 



