Clifton College Scientific Society. 7 



those connected witli sliipjiing that they should be resumed. 

 The Board of Trade, to whom the annual grant was made, re- 

 ferred the subject to the Eoyal Society, and it was ultimately 

 arranged that a committee of that body should take the entire 

 control of the grant, and make an annual report to Parliament. 

 Of that committee, Lieu.tenant- General Sir Edward Sabine, 

 KCB., the venerable President of the Eoyal Society, has been 

 the Chairman since its formation. The storm-signals were re- 

 sumed in a modified form, and it was resolved to establish 

 meteorological observatories in different parts of Great Britain 

 and Ireland for registering observations, and collecting reliable 

 statistics of the weather. The committee hope that these may 

 ultimately serve as data for more definite laws regarding atmos- 

 pheric disturbances, and the approach and force of storms. 



During the years 1867 and 1868, six observatories were 

 started and in working order, subordinate to the central obser- 

 vatory at Kew, which was under the able direction of Dr 

 Balfom- Stewart, F.K.S. The results of all the observations, 

 after having been examined at Kew, were sent to the office of 

 the Meteorological Committee of the Eoyal Society in London. 

 These six observatories were placed as follows : — In England, 

 at Stonyhurst and Falmouth ; in Scotland, at Aberdeen and 

 Glasgow ; in Ireland, at Armagh and Valentia. All the in- 

 struments supplied to them were first carefully tested at Kew, 

 and made referable to one common standard, by which means 

 the registers admitted of exact comparison. 



The principal instruments are self-recording and continuous 

 in their registers, viz., the anemometer and anemograph, for 

 registering the velocity and direction of the wind ; the baro- 

 graph, for registering the pressure of the atmosphere ; and the 

 thermograph, for registering the temperature of both the dry and 

 wet bulb thermometers.* There are other instruments sub- 

 sidiary to these — a standard barometer, two standard ther- 

 mometers, maximum and minimum thermometers, and a 

 chronometer. 



At Falmouth, the instruments are placed in a tower about 

 fifty feet high, built expressly for the purpose. Its summit is 

 about two hundred and twenty feet above the sea, and it con- 

 sists of four storeys, with a flat roof, on which is placed a stage 

 for the anemometer ; this communicates with the anemograph 

 in the upper storey. The barograph is in the basement, which 

 is sunk a few feet below the level of the adjoining ground ; the 



* Since this lecture was delivered, a self-recording rain-gauge has been supplied 

 to each of the observatories. 



