REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. xix 
electro-meteorological and magnetical observatory at Alten, in Finmark, and 
proposing to furnish some electrical apparatus from Kew and of my own, but 
nothing has been achieved in this way. 
“In September 1847, repairs of the building becoming more urgent, I 
addressed a third application to the Woods and Forests through Mr. Phillips, 
and a new estimate for complete external and internal repairs was made, 
amounting to £271. The Commissioners, Mr. Milne, Mr. Burton, and Mr. 
Phillips, then visited the Observatory, examined it, and the apparatus, &c., 
and very soon afterwards all such repairs were executed as were fully suffi- 
cient to render it at least wind- and water-tight, which rendered a great 
service to the magnet. 
“In November 1847, the magnetical apparatus was improved by the ad- 
dition of a second condensing Jens, placed beyond and very near to the index, 
and by an adjustment for the height of the lamp. 
_* At about the same time the barometric apparatus was improved by like 
means. 
“In December 1847, the apparatus for registering photographically the 
electricity of the atmosphere now established at the south window of the 
south upper apartment (in pursuance of the experiments made in July and 
August 1845 et seq.) was in course of construction, and was completed in 
February 1848. 
“TI took much pains in the course of several months prior and subsequent 
to this time to arrange a system whereby photographic papers might be put 
into the microscopes (or camera) daily, and sent to Mr. Henneman’s establish- 
ment, in Regent-street, to be there fixed and calotyped, and the positive 
impressions thence distributed to any meteorologists whom the British Asso- 
ciation might think proper to appoint to receive them. These endeavours 
have been zealously promoted by Mr. Malone, and will become, I trust, 
useful. 
“‘ We now arrive at a circumstance which I (of course) cannot but esteem 
of importance. In Mr. Glaisher’s remarks on the weather during the quarter 
ending December 31, 1847, for the Registrar-General’s Report (at p. 2), he 
says, in reference to the Greenwich electrical apparatus,— It is a fact well- 
worthy of notice, that from the beginning of this quarter till the 20th of 
December, the electricity of the atmosphere was almost always in a neutral 
state, so that no signs of electricity whatever were shown for several days 
together, by any of the electrical instruments,’ &c. At this notice I sent to 
Greenwich an abstract from our journal of the maxima and minima of the 
two-hourly charges of the conductor during the same period, by which it 
was seen that the electricity of the atmosphere at Kew was never in a neutral 
"state then, and I found that so low a charge was never observed during that 
time as has been observed in other periods. These circumstances were can- 
didly stated in the next report. It was thought that this discrepancy be- 
tween the two conductors, &c. might arise, wholly or in part, from the great 
length of the conducting wire, which extends from the top of the mast at 
Greenwich to the magnetic observatory, where the electrometers are placed. 
Both theory and experiment fully confirm my belief that this was the chief 
cause of the difference, and is the cause of a want of constancy in signs at 
Greenwich. (A few experiments upon my own conductor with a long wire 
_have lately confirmed the fact still more.)” 
On this report the Committee have to remark with satisfaction, as on 
scientific objects usefully and availably carried out,—1st. On the photogra- 
e2 
