Art. I. — Observations with Katers Invariable Pendulums 

 made at Sydney during January and February, 

 i8g^ ; tvith an Appendix on the Stability of the 

 Pendulum Stand. 



(With Diagram). 



By E. F, J. Love, M.A. 



[Kead 8th March, 1894.] 



Introductory. 



The object of this investigation was to throw some additional 

 light on the question of the difference between the values of g at 

 Melbourne and Sydney. Two determinations of this difference 

 had already been made ; the officers of the United States Coast 

 Survey swung the Kater pendulums at Sydney in 1883, these 

 pendulums being also swung by Mr. Baracshi at Melbourne in 

 1893 ; while Lieutenant Elblein swung three of von Sterneck's 

 pendulums at Melbourne and at Sydney in the winter of 1893. 

 When these two sets of results came to be compared,* they were 

 found to be inconsistent; the U.S. Coast Survey figures, combined 

 with those of Mr. Baracchi, show that a pendulum beating 

 approximately seconds should lose 8"58 vibrations per day, if 

 transferred from Melbourne to Sydney ; while Lieutenant 

 Elblein's figures give 13*48 as the loss per day. I accordingly 

 decided to swing the Kater pendu-lums again in Sydney at the 

 earliest opportunity ; and, as a matter of fact, the observations 

 in Sydney succeeded those of Mr. Baracchi in Melbourne by a 

 little more than three months. During the interval I made a few 

 measurements in Melbourne ; these agree in the main with those 

 of Mr. Baracchi, but are so much less elaborate that there is no 

 need to publish them. The observations in Sydney follow my 

 own in Melbourne at an interval of five weeks. We may there- 

 fore reasonably consider that the compai'ison between Melbourne 

 and Sydney recently secured lacks nothing in point of directness. 



Baracchi— Proo. Roy. Soc. Vict., 1893, p. 176. 



