354 Professor Arthur Schuster [May 18, 



aeronautical work was recently established at Lindenberg, near Berlin, 

 where kites or balloons are sent up daily for the purpose of securing 

 meteorological records. The greatest height yet reached was during 

 the ascent of the 25th of November, 1905, when by means of several 

 kites sent one after another on the same wire, the upper one rose to 

 an altitude of 6430 metres, almost exactly four miles. Owing to 

 want of funds this country could, until recently, only participate in 

 this work through the individual efforts of Mr. Dines, who received, 

 however, some assistance from the British Association and the Royal 

 Meteorological Society. 



The reconstruction of the Meteorological Office has made it pos- 

 sible now for Mr. Dines's work to be continued as part of the regular 

 work of the office, and further stations are being established. Mr. 

 Cave carries out regular ascents at his own expense at Ditcham Park, 

 and through the co-operation of the Royal Meteorological Society and 

 the University of Manchester, assisted by a contribution for apparatus 

 from the Royal Society Government Grant Fund, a regular kite 

 station is being established on the Derbyshire moors. 



The International Committee which collates the observations is a 

 commission appointed by a union voluntarily formed between the 

 Directors of Meteorological Observatories and Institutes of countries 

 in which regular observations are taken. The meeting of Directors 

 discusses schemes of observations, and encourages uniformity. 



If I mention a few of the difficulties which stand in the way of a 

 homogeneous system extending over Europe, I do it in the hope that 

 it may perhaps ultimately assist in removing some of them. It is 

 obviously desirable that the charts which are intended to show the 

 distribution of pressure and temperature should be derived from 

 observations made at the same hour. Germany observes at eight 

 o'clock of Central European time, and France observes simultaneously 

 (or nearly so) by choosing seven o'clock Paris time for its readings. 

 AYe observe at eight o'clock Greenwich time, which is an hour later. 

 It is the great desire of Continental meteorologists that our standard 

 hour should be seven o'clock, and what prevents it from being so ? 

 Chiefly and absolutely the additional cost which the Post Office must 

 claim for the transmission of telegrams ; because messages transmitted 

 before eight o'clock are subject to an additional charge of one shilling 

 which may be claimed by the postmaster, the claim being possibly 

 increased to two shillings when the postmaster and telegraphist are 

 different persons. This is prohibitive, but it does not exhaust the 

 inconvenience of the additional charge. For the purpose of weather 

 forecasting it is clearly necessary that telegrams should be received as 

 early as possible by the Meteorological Office. But the eight o'clock 

 rule delays telegrams from some Irish stations, because eight o'clock 

 by Dublin time is 8.25 by Greenwich time, and therefore Irish tele- 

 grams may have to wait until nearly half-past eight if they are to be 

 transmitted without extra charge. 



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