LXXXVIII THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The mounting of the new pliotographic teleiscope was completed 

 last year but the building is not quite ready to receive it. When in- 

 stalled it will be used for photographic photometry and photography of 

 the milky way, comets, etc. The objective prisms which are to be used 

 in this telescope were mounted on the equatorial and experiments 

 looking towards the determination of radial velocities by objecti\'e 

 prism spectra were undertaken with fairly promising results. 



Meridian Circle. — Transit and Zenith distance observations have 

 been continued during the past year on a special list of stars comprising 

 mainly those which have been used for latitude observations throughout 

 Canada by officers of the Observatory in recent years. Work on this 

 list was begun in 1911, and such additional stars have been added from 

 time to time as were being used in the field observations. The numloer 

 of observations obtained during the year, excluding broken nights, 

 was slightly under 2,000 in each co-ordinate. The weather especially 

 during the autumn and winter months, was the worst experienced for 

 years. 



Permanent stone buildings, replacing the temporar}^ Avooden sheds, 

 have been erected over the piers for the two meridian marks. The 

 underground reference marks have also been placed in position. 



Time Service. — Time is furnished to the principal Government 

 offices by electrically operated dials of which there are now 326. A new 

 form of synchronization is being installed which will prevent any possi- 

 bility of stopping the sj-nchronized clock by interference with the sj-n- 

 chronizing current — an advantage not shared by other methods. 

 Time signals are sent out daily at noon (except Sundays and holidays) 

 to the Great Northwestern Telegraph Company. \ time-ball on 

 Parliament Hill is automatical!}^ dropped as a signal for firing the noon- 

 day gun. There is an arrangement b}' which the beats of the clock 

 operated through a sounder can be sent out over the telephone to any 

 one requesting the time. 



Field Obncrvations. — The geographical co-ordinates of only thiee 

 stations were determined the past year, the stations being in Northern 

 British Columbia. The registering micrometer was used as in the 

 previous years for transits, while Talcott's method was used for 

 latitude observations. 



Geophysics. — The two Bosch horizontal pendulums and the Spind- 

 ler and Hoyer vertical were in operation during the year. Ninet}- 

 three distant earthquakes were recorded during the calendar year 1912. 



Monthly bulletins of tlic records of these were issued to some 75 

 seismological stations. 



