1869.] TJie Lambeth Ohservatory. 343 



share of the bargain. It was assumed that if the implements 

 looked hke the pattern, it woukl be all that could be desired, and if 

 by any accident it was discovered that it was not all that was 

 desired, the responsibility was conceived to rest upon the shoulders 

 of the tradesman who had thus badly executed his order. This 

 system was obviously not likely to prove satisfactory where the 

 delicate and exact work of observational science was concerned. In 

 the first place, the sealed pattern assumed a perfection in instru- 

 mental construction which will not be obtained after many more 

 centuries have been consumed in unceasing improvement ; and in a 

 sense also ordained that Indian science should operate with obsolete 

 instruments, instead of with the best that could be produced in the 

 existing state of cosntructive art. And in the next place, the best 

 makers who had a reputation for excellence to sustain were more 

 or less excluded from the Indian orders because they were expected 

 to compete with men who looked to profit out of low prices, rather 

 than to furnish excellence of work. 



It happened while matters were in this position that Colonel 

 Strange, who was the originator, and is now the life and manager 

 of the Indian Store Observatory, was requested to examine a 

 quantity of instruments that had been sent to England for repair, 

 before they were again shipped off for India. In performing 

 this duty, he was constrained to urge that the greater part of 

 these instruments, about which a considerable expenditure had 

 been incurred, were really of an obsolete form and useless for 

 practical work ; and to recommend that the whole should be sold 

 for anything that could be made of them, rather than that the 

 serious injury should be inflicted on officers in India of giving 

 them tools that could only furnish erroneous and misleading 

 observations. 



The instruments accordingly were withdrawn from the service, 

 and the incident had also a further and more practical result. It 

 opened the eyes of the authorities to the need of a different mode 

 of procedure, and arrangements were forthwith entered upon to 

 secure at least a standard measure of excellence in all instruments 

 sent out to India. At first Colonel Strange was commissioned to 

 examine batches of instruments of various kinds fitfully, as they 

 were prepared for shipment ; but after he had pointed out that 

 this could only be serviceable when means of efficient examination 

 were available, he was requested to submit a recommendation 

 as to the appliances which were requisite for the scrutiny. The 

 recommendation was that a fixed observatory should be esta- 

 blished for the work, and a plan of the character and instrumental 

 furniture of this testing observatory was suggested. The plan was 

 formally and officially examined by the Astronomer Eoyal, the 

 President of the Eoyal Society, and the Director of the Ordnance 



