XXX REPORT — 1856. 



k. It was resolved — 



That the cordial thanks of the Council be tendered to the Lord Wrottesley 

 and the Officers and Council of the Royal Society, for the promptitude 

 with which they have responded to the request of the British Associa- 

 tion, in granting the sum of £250 for the purpose of lighting the Kew 

 Observatory with gas. 



Report of the Kew Committee, presented to the Council of the British 

 Association, August 6. 1856. 



The Committee beg to submit the following Report of their proceedings 

 since the meeting of the British Association at Glasgow : — 



The instruments and apparatus sent by the Committee to the Paris Exhi- 

 bition were returned to the Observatory in December last. The total expense 

 incurred by the Committee in connexion with the Exhibition amounted to 

 £202 : 7*. 1 Id., exceeding by £62 : 7s. 1 Id. the sum of £140 granted by the 

 Board of Trade. This balance has since been repaid by the Board. 



At the last Meeting of the Association, your Committee presented a Special 

 Report relative to their application to Her Majesty's Government for the use 

 of two acres of land contiguous to the Observatory, and the lighting of the 

 building with gas, — such applications having been made in consequence of 

 the recommendation of the General Committee at the Liverpool Meeting. 

 The Association is still compelled to pay the high rent of ten guineas per 

 acre for the land. The Committee fully expected that this year they should 

 have been enabled to report that the expense of lighting the Observatory 

 with gas would have been defrayed by t!ie Government. The President of 

 the Board of Works at first intimated to the Committee that the subject 

 would receive consideration, and subsequently that he would consider the 

 propriety of including the amount in the estimates for the present year. On 

 further application, however, this has been refused. A copy of the corre- 

 spondence is annexed to this Report. 



Your Committee have, however, the gratification of reporting, that on a 

 representation of the circumstances being submittec^ by the Council of the 

 Association to the President and Council of the Royal Society, the sum of 

 £250 from the Wollaston Fund was immediately placed at the disposal of 

 the Committee, in order that no further delay from the want of funds should 

 take place in effecting the long-desired object. 



Much as the Committee may regret the refusal of the Board of Works to 

 grant their request, they gladly avail themselves of this opportunity to express 

 to Lord Wrottesley and the Council of the Royal Society their thanks for 

 the prompt manner in which the intimation was made to them that the money 

 had been voted. Jt affords another proof how ready the Royal Society has 

 ever been to forward and assist scientific investigations. 



Mr. De la Rue has made a preliminary examination of one of the Huy- 

 genian object-glasses, namely, that of 122 feet focal length, and, so far as 

 he has hitherto been enabled to judge, it would appear that this object-glass 

 defines with tolerable precision ; but he is not yet able to say whether it 

 will be desirable to go to the expense of erecting the tower for celestial 

 observations. 



A paper by Mr. Welsh, descriptive of the Kew Standard Barometer, and 

 of the apparatus and processes employed in the verification of barometers, 

 has been communicated to the Royal Society by the Chairman, and is now 

 being printed in the Transactions of the Society. 



