THE NATIONAL SCIENTllTC INSTITUTIONS AT BERLIN. lOt) 



In 1868 a new meridian circle by Pistor and Martins was pnrcliased; 

 in 1860 a hermetically sealed pendaluni clock by F. Tiede and in 1879 a 

 universal transit by C. Bamberg. 



The publication of the " Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbucii," which 

 had been under the care of the director of the observatory, was in 1871 

 transferred to a special division of the observatory, known by the name 

 of "Astronomisches Eechenlnstitat" (Astronomical Computation In- 

 stitute). 



The Computation InstitMte,m addition to its regular staff, gives employ- 

 ment to five regular and to a varying number of temporary assistants. 



The Institute also contains rooms for the exercises of the IJuiver- 

 sity Seminary for the instruction, in scientific calculation, of a number 

 of students. 



The budget of the observatory for regular expenses is fixed at ll,o40 

 mark ($2,835), and that of the Compntiug Institute at 8,800 mark 

 ($2,200), to which for the latter are added 15,000 mark ($3,750), to be 

 used in the publication of the "Astronomisches Jahrbucii," together 

 Avith the compensation of any computers required for the same. 



In close connection with the "Astronomisches Jahrbucii," the publica- 

 tion of which was begun in 1772 by order of the Royal Academy (and 

 the one hundred and thirteenth annual volume of which has just been 

 published), the observatory, since its reconstruction in 1835, has em- 

 ployed itself principally with the determination of positions of fixed 

 stars, planets, and comets. 



The results of these observations are ])nb]islied partly in five folio 

 volumes, entitled "Beobachtungeu der koniglichen Sternwarte zu Ber- 

 lin," and partly in the " Astronomische Nachrichten." 



Five planets belonging to the group between Mars and Jupiter and 

 thirteen comets have been discovered at the observatory. 



A remarkable fact is to be recorded in the annals of the observatory 

 in that the i)lanet Neptune, the existence of which had been surmised 

 by Bessel iu 1823 from some inexplicable irregularities in the motion of 

 Uranus, and the location of which had been calculated by Le Verrier 

 and Adams on the basis of these disturbances was really discovered in 

 the calculated place on September 23, 1846. by Galle, with the aid of 

 the Fraunhofer refractor. 



The Meteor olofjical Institute. — This Institute owes its existence to the 

 exertions of Alexander von Humboldt, as a result of which, the King- 

 by order of October 17, 1847, caused its establishment under the direc- 

 tion of the lioyal Statistical Bureau, of which it formed an independent 

 scientific division until March 31, 1886. 



Negotiations for the re-organization of themeteorological bureau pend- 

 ing for ten years at last terminated in the spring of 1885, and Dr. von 

 Bezold, professor at the technical high school at Munich, who had been 

 induced to accept the newly created chair of meteorology at the Berlin 

 Ufliyersityj was appointed director of the Meteorological Institute. 



