5G2 REPORTS OF AMERICAN OBSERVATORIES. 



courtesy of the officers of the telegraph company our branch line was 

 erected and a complete set of instruments supplied for the observatory 

 office. 



The meau-time regulator of the observatory, by great care, is kept 

 accurately in true time. To be assured of this frequent time star-obser- 

 vations are taken by which the error and rate of the sidereal regulator 

 are known. The mean-time is deduced from this, and any needed cor- 

 rection of the mean-time clock is made by an ingenious magnetic attach- 

 ment which is controlled by an electric current at the pleasure of the 

 person in charge. 



Daily, at three minutes before noon, the mean-time clock, which is 

 provided with an electrical attachment, is connected with the telegraph 

 lines of the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Eailroad, and from this 

 line to the Saint Paul and Sioux City Eailroad, and nearly all others in 

 the State and some out of it. The clock is so constructed that it will 

 give its own signal so as to be understood at the most distant points 

 where line-connections are made. As an example of the facility and 

 extent of the daily time signals which the observatory regulator fin- 

 ishes, we will quote from a letter recently received from our friend, W. 

 H. Drake, of Saint Paul, train-dispatcher of the Saint Paul and Sioux 

 Eailroad : 



Monday, 17th, your clock beat time for 1,285 miles of line wire through, (near as I 

 can count it) 157 instruments. Where the Milwaukee and Saint Paul line via Mason 

 City crosses our hue at Sheldon, Iowa, our instruments arc on the same table. The 

 stroke of the clock comes to each of them alike. Monday, Kansas City was the ter- 

 minus. The stroke sounded in Minnesota, Iowa, Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Mis- 

 souri. "When I can arrange with the Union Pacific for some lair day we will try to 

 compare time with the Pacific coast. They have been ready twice, but did not give 

 sufficient time to arrange with you. 



This single incident will serve to show the wide sphere of usefulness 

 and of influence which the college has and may hold if it can carry out 

 plans of work already well begun.' 7 — [Rice County Journal.) 



Location of observatory : (Near) Oxford; (County) Lafayette; (State) 

 Mississippi. 

 Name of observatory: University of Mississippi. 



Longitude from Washington, AY. h 49 m 55 s .03. 

 Latitude N. 34° 22' 12".G4. 

 Authority for latitude and longitude: E. B. Fulton. 



I. Personnel: 

 Director, E. B. Fulton. 



II. Instalments: 



(a) Altitude-azimuth : Makers, LEREBOURS & SECRETAN ; diameter of 

 circles, 10 inches; divided to 10' ; read by 4 microscopes to 10"; aperture 

 of objective, 1£ inches. 



