TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 4f 



On a Meteor seen at Cheltenham on Friday, August 8th. 

 By the Rev. C. Pritchard, F.R.S. 



The author stated, that on leaving the Meeting of the Association on Friday 

 evening, about 8 p.m., the friend who was with him suddenly exclaimed, "There is 

 lightning !" But observing that the light continued, he turned round, and saw a 

 beautiful meteor moving, nearly in a vertical circle, nearly through a. Lyree, — com- 

 mencing about eight diameters of moon below a Lyrae, and extending* through about 

 ten diameters, — commencing, in fact, in a line drawn through Jupiter and the lower 

 of the three stars in Aquila. It was very decided and persistent, with rose-coloured 

 scintillations, taking a serpentine course, and lasting for fully forty seconds. No 

 further meteors were observed that night ; but on the following night he observed six 

 others, about the same hour, — all having their vanishing points near, or below, the 

 horizon, and, in the vertical circle, through a Lyree. The former meteor was seen 

 by other friends, and also at Tewkesbury, and its decided persistency and violet 

 colour remarked upon at the time. 



Continuation of Meteorological Observations for 1855, at Huggate, Yorkshire. 

 By the Rev. T. Rankin. 



The atmospheric wave of November was twelve days in passing; coldest day, 13°, 

 February 18; hottest day, 73°, July 13 ; lowest point of the barometer, 28'160, 

 March 3 ; highest point, 30'460 ; rain, 23*570 inches ; eclipse of the sun visible only 

 a few seconds ; in the evening a large meteor exploded and discharged coloured scin- 

 tillations like a rocket. On the evening of October 21, the whole atmosphere had 

 the appearance of the hull of a ship, with the white planks all distinct from stem to 

 stern. The ends were N.W. and S.E. The N.W. end was like pieces of amber, 

 and the S.E. end a beautiful purple. The common observation of the oldest 

 labourers is, that when the wind blows across the ends of the ship, heavy rain will 

 soon come. In the present case, the wind blew obliquely across the ends, and, 

 according to the common prognostic, there was soon a heavy fall of rain. Winds : 

 E., 11 days; W., 36 days; N., 5 days; N.E., 39 days; N.W., 30 days; S.E., 

 6 daj's ; S.W., 25 daj's. Weather: clear days, 117; rain, 51 ; frost, 28; white 

 frost, 29 ; snow, 18 ; mist, 7 ; fog, 4 ; thunder, 8 days. 



On a Thermometer for Measuring Fluctuations of Temperature. 

 By B. Stewart. Communicated and described by Mr. Welsh. 



If a bulb be blown between two thermometric glass tubes of unequal bores, and 

 the instrument be filled with mercury in the same manner as an ordinary thermo- 

 meter, and laid horizontal or nearly so, it will be found that contractions from cold 

 take place only in the narrow bore, and expansions from heat only in the wide one. 

 The reason of this seems to be, that while the temperature remains the same the 

 mercury is kept at rest, and prevented from retreating from the small bore into the 

 bulb, by friction ; but when a motive force is supplied by a change of temperature, 

 the motion of the mercury takes place in that direction in which it is most aided 

 by capillary action. It was suggested by Mr. Welsh to the author that such an 

 instrument might be used to measure fluctuations of temperature. And the author 

 thinks it might be applied to measure with exactness the power of a source of 

 radiant heat ; for, by alternately interposing a screen between this instrument and 

 the source of heat, and withdrawing the same screen, the effect of the source on the 

 mercury would be multiplied by the number of times this operation was performed. 

 In constructing such an instrument, care must be taken that the tubes used are quite 

 free from dirt or moisture, and that they are not bent, but form one straight line, the 

 bulb being in the middle, and swelling out symmetrically from both its extremities. 

 The best proportion between the capacities of the bores is perhaps about 1 to 4, and 

 the best arrangement of bores seems to be one suggested by Mr. Welsh, viz. a 

 round bore for the wide tube, and a flat or elliptical bore for the narrow one, the 

 greatest diameter of which equals the diameter of the wide bore. In graduating, if, 

 when the instrument is vertical, the narrow bore being beneath, the mercury fills 



