CORRESPONDENCE ON ASTRONOMICAL ANNOUNCEMENTS. 65 



Acknowledgment from the Smithsonian Institution, January 27, 1880, to 

 Prof. C. H. F. Peters, Clinton, If. Y. 



Dear Sir : Please accept our thanks for yours of January 21 rela- 

 tive to changes in circular of announcement of astronomical dispatches. 



Very truly yours, 



S. F. Baird. 



Letter from the Smithsonian Institution, February 16, 1880, to Prof. C. 

 n. F. Peters, Clinton, N. Y. 



Dear Sir: The dispatch from the Astronomer Eoyal of England 

 appears not to follow the convention for telegraphic announcements 

 affording another instance of the ambiguity to which we have before 

 alluded and which we wish to correct. 



As received by us, it reads: 



" Gill telegraphs from Cape Town, comet, twelfth February, 0858 cape 

 123L1, motion plus 235, minus 20. Astronomer Eoyal." 



The 0858 cape we think refers to time of discovery and the 12311 to 

 be a mistake of the operators. 



Yours very truly, 



Spencer F. Baird. 



Letter from the Litchfield Observatory of Hamilton College, Clinton, N. T., 

 February 19, 1880, to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Dear Sir f You are right; there is certainly a mistake in the dispatch 

 from Cape Town about Gill's comet, five figures having been omitted, 

 but it is impossible to say which — either those indicating the R. A. or 

 those of the North Polar Distance. The telegram, as communicated in 

 your letter received this morning, and which is in the cipher-system 

 proposed years ago by Littrow (but hardly applicable in this country, 

 ■where by law every figure must be written out in words), can be inter- 

 preted in the two following ways : 



Comet 12th February 8^ 58^ mean time Cape, R. A. 123^.11, N. P. D. 

 [5 figures omitted], motion + 235' =3055' in R. A. — 20' in K P. D. 



Comet [etc.] E. A. [5 figures omitted], K P. D. = 123° 11' {i. e., Decl. 

 — 33° 11') motion, etc. 



Probably some telegrapher between Cape Town and Greenwich or 

 Greenwich and Washington got tired of sending ten consecutive fig- 

 ures; and indeed this system of dispatches has been a source of contin- 

 ual blunders, so that Lord Lindsay (whose assistant Mr. Gill was, before 

 he went to take charge of the Cape Observatory) did wrong in reviving 

 it. The system adopted by the Smithsonian Institution was discussed 

 with the late Professor liittrow, Professor Bruhns, of Leipzic, and others, 

 and has worked to satisfiiction so far. It will be still more acceptable 

 to all when the additions lately discussed are introduced, and I would 

 recommend (which, perhaps, also, is your intention) to issue the amended 

 H. Mis. 26 5 



