OBITUARY. 





CHARLES WILLIAM ADAMS, 1840-1918. 



Charles William Adams was born at Bucklands, Tasmania, on the 7th July, 

 1840. His parents, the Eev. Henry Cay Adams and his wife {nee Maiden), 

 were early settlers in Tasmania. He was educated at the CampbeUtown 

 Grammar School under Dr. W. Carr Boyd, of Trinity College, Dublin. 



After some experience in land-surveying in Victoria and Tasmania he 

 came* to New Zealand in "1862 and entered the Provincial Survev Depart- 

 ment of Otago, being appointed in 1865 to the Wellington Provincial 

 Survey Department. In 1867 he returned to the Otago Survey Depart- 

 ment, and on the abolition of the provinces in 1876 he was appointed 

 Geodesical Surveyor in the General Government. 



In 1877, when engaged in latitude observations on the west coast of 

 the South Island, Mr. Adams discovered an error in the British Admiralty 

 Nautical Almanac. His programme included observations to eight stars — 

 four north and four south of the zenith — and at each of three stations 

 Alpha Centauri was one of the stars observed to the south of the zenith. 

 The observations were made in April, May, and June, and when reduced 

 the observations on Alpha Centauri were not consistent with the others. 

 It is to be remembered that the observations were made with a portable 

 field theodolite with 8 in. circles, and not with the large instruments of an 

 observatory. • 



The difference disclosed was of the order of 12", whilst his probable 

 error of each of the other results was about 1". Mr. Adams thereupon 

 corresponded with the Astronomer Royal (Sir G. B. Airy), Greenwich, and 

 the Government Astronomer (Mr. R. L. J. Ellery), Melbourne, with the 

 result that the error was admitted, and the declination of Alpha Centauri 

 was afterwards corrected. 



It should be stated that the Nautical Almanac p&sition of Alpha 

 Centauri depended on Herschel's observations at the Cape of Good Hope 

 in 1834-38, and that a small proper motion had been accumulating for 

 about forty years, and, not being taken into account, the position in 1877 

 was some 11" in error. 



In 1882 a temporary observatory was built at Mount Cook, Wellington, 

 to prepare for the observation of the Transit of Venus on the 7th December, 

 1882. -Previous to this event, and in preparation for it, Mr. Adams under- 

 took extensive observations for time and azimuth, and exchanged time 

 signals with the British and other astronomers who observed the Transit 

 of Venus in New Zealand. 



In 1883 Mr. Adams observed over one hundred pairs of stars with 

 the zenith telescope for latitude at Wellington. In September he visited 

 the observatories at Melbourne and Sydney to prepare for the exchange of 

 time signals by the submarine cable between Sydney and Wellington for the 

 determination of the difference of longitude. The astronomical observations 

 were made and the time signals exchanged in December, 1883. Mr. Adams 

 was the astronomer at the Wellington Observatory, whilst Mr. Russell, 

 Government Astronomer of New South Wales, was in charge at Sydney. 



