344 Mr, Goldhigham^s Report [Nov. 



arrived four days afterwards : the requisite observations for the 

 time were taken ; and, after waiting about 30 days for a passage, 

 the whole party embarked in the ship Eleanor for Madras, and 

 arrived in the roads on the 4th of June. 



I shall now proceed to give the observations and experiments. 



It may be necessary to premise, that the foUowmg tables 

 contain only the observations which were considered to be the 

 most accurate. The method of proving them having been by 

 calculating the whole of the observations, then taking the mean 

 — and any of the results which differed more than a given quan- 

 tity from that mean, were not retained.* Of the experiments 

 with the pendulum, I have not deemed it proper to admit those 

 made on the days when the clock was wound up ; as it appears, 

 that the machinery for keeping the works in motion while the 

 clock is winding did not act, and that at such times the second 

 hand was also liable to go back ; it is true the clock was com- 

 pared both before winding and after, with a chronometer ; but 

 in an inquiry of this nature, where it was required to have the 

 rate of the clock to a very small fraction of a second, I thought 

 it better to reject altogether the experiments made on the days 

 mentioned, particularly as the remaining observations were so 

 very numerous. The whole of the original observations and 

 experiments are preserved, however, in the books at the Obser- 

 vatory. None of the pendulum experiments have been rejected, 

 except those just noticed, as having been taken on the days 

 when the clock was wound up ; this was once a week.f 



The foregoing are all the observations from which the conclu- 

 sions will be drawn ; these I have endeavoured should be 

 arranged in as clear a manner as possible ; in order that any 

 person so disposed may be enabled to examine the foundation 

 on which the conclusions rest, and to go over the calculations. 



We now proceed to the computation of the experiments and 

 observations. The results only of the different operations are 

 contained in the tables which follow : for the performance pf 

 these operations the Honourable the Governor in Council was 

 pleased to allow me a continuance of the aid of the two obser- 

 vers, Robinson and Lawrence. The rules for reducing the 

 experiments having been furnished them step by step as they 

 proceeded, each calculating the experiments and observations 

 nimself had made, and the results were not entered, until the 

 operations had been twice gone over, and then examined ; the 



♦ Of the observations for the latitude of Po. Gaunsah Jjout, where the experiments 

 for ascertaining the length of the pendulum were made, I have not admitted those which 

 differed more than 15 seconds from the mean of the whole. Nearly all the observa- 

 tions taken there by Assistant Lawrence stood this test, and very few were rejected. At 

 other places where tlie observations were less numerous, I have admitted all, not differ- 

 ing more than 25, and in some cases 30 seconds from the mean. 



+ The table* here given in the original report, occup3ring 86 folio pages, are neces* 

 sarily omitted. Edit. 



