jQjyjii REPORT— 1851. 



2nd, in the purchase and improvement of M. Regnault's modification of 

 Daniell's Hydrometer ; and, 3rd, in the purchase of a Standard Thermometer, 

 in which the accuracy of the temperatures indicated by all the divisions of 

 the scale has been examined, and is guaranteed by the well-known skill and 

 care of M. Regnault ; which instrument it is intended to employ in the 

 verification of thermometers made by artists in this country. 



2. The difficultv in respect to funds for the completion of Mr. Ronalds's 

 instruments for the self-registry of magnetical observations having thus been 

 surmounted, the Royal Society have granted to Mr. Ronalds, from the do- 

 nation fund at their disposal, £100, to be applied in an experimental trial of 

 those instruments for a period of six months ; during which they are to be 

 worked precisely as in an Observatory, and a minute account kept of every 

 item of expense incurred in carrying on the self-registry for that period. This 

 experimental trial is now in progress, having been commenced in April. 



3. £150 has been allotted from the Government Grant of 1851, for the 

 construction and verification of standard Meteorological Instruments at Kew, 

 and for the purchase of apparatus required for that purpose. The notifica- 

 tion of this grant has been but just received, but, by its aid, M. Regnault's 

 apparatus for calibrating and graduating Thermometer Tubes has already 

 been procured, and steps have been taken for the examination of the different 

 kinds of glass which are likely to be best adapted for thermometers. 



4. £175 has been allotted from the Government Grant of 1851, to Pro- 

 fessor Stokes, of Cambridge, for Experiments to be made at Kew, to de- 

 termine the Index of Friction in different Gases. The notification of this 

 grant is also very recent ; but apparatus has been ordered, and the expe- 

 riments will be commenced forthwith. 



With this assistance, the expenditure for the maintenance of the Obser- 

 vatory has not exceeded the sum placed at the disposal of the Council for 

 that purpose ; and there are no debts. 



In the various experimental researches which have been thus enumerated, 

 conducted as they severally are by Members of the British Association, 

 whose services are gratuitous, the Council are glad to be able to report, on 

 the authority of the Kew Committee, that great advantage is derived from 

 the zeal, assiduity and intelligence with which they are assisted by Mr. 

 Welsh, late Assistant in Sir Thomas Brisbane's Observatory at Makerstoun, 

 whose services the Council have engaged at a salary of £100 a year (with 

 residence), payable out of the £300 placed at their disposal by the General 

 Committee, but not guaranteed of course beyond the current year, which 

 terminates with the Ipswich Meeting. 



In concluding this notice of the present state and prospects of the Kew 

 Observatory, the Council take occasion to remark, that the liberality with 

 which the British Association has nursed the infancy of an establishment, 

 novel in its purposes, and not therefore perhaps duly appreciated by 

 all at first, has already produced contributions towards its objects from other 

 sources, and which in the present year considerably exceed the sum granted 

 by the Association itself; and taking into account that the institution works 

 well under its present arrangements and on its present footing, and believing 

 that its continuance will be conducive alike to the advancement of science 

 and to the credit of the British Association, they recommend that the grant 

 of £300 to the Kew Observatory should be continued for the next year. 



