620 



Proceedings of Learned Socieiies. 



fJuNE, 



patli, will receive such a shock as in all 

 probability will occasion Its destruction — 

 Revue Encyc. 



Chronometers.r—Some very singuLir ob- 

 servations have been made with regard to 

 the chronometers which are left for trial at 

 the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Se- 

 veral of these machines, whose rate of 

 going has for many weeks been extremely 

 regular, have, for a single day only, had 

 their rates increased by several seconds ; in 

 one instance, a change was effected of about 

 twelve seconds ; on another occasion, a 

 chronometer of the finest construction, and 

 the performance of which was extremely 

 correct, suddenly lost eight seconds at 

 once, and when the artist, by whom it had 

 been made, sent a person to examine the 

 cause of the alteration, three seconds were 

 said to be lost while he was within the 

 walls of the observatory ; the maker him- 

 self then went down to inspect it, and, un- 

 fortunately for science, nothing further was 

 heard on the subject ; for, although the 

 fact was a matter of public notoriety, it did 

 not appear in the official retunis from the 

 observatory. Many conjectures were ha- 

 zarded as to the cause of these phaenomena, 

 when it was discovered that on the same 

 days when the watches, which vi-ere upon 

 trial, had changed their rate in so extraor- 

 dinary a manner, other chronometers, 

 which were not \ipon trial, but were left at 

 the observatory to have their rates ascer- 

 tained, were entered as having been let 

 down ; it was further remarked, that this 

 had pretty uniformly occurred on a Sunday, 

 and that the chronometers which had 

 changed their rate, and those which had 

 been let down, were such as required to be 

 wound up daily. The inference, however, 

 that the chronometers upon trial had been 

 let down, was manifestly incorrect, as £\00 

 per annum is paid by government for wind- 

 ing up and rating the chronometers. Of 

 those which are entered for trial, govern- 

 ment gives cESOO for the best, and £200 

 for the second best ; and the prize, as it is 

 erroneously called, usually carries with it 

 very extensive orders for the navy. Now 

 the present astronomer royal is universally 

 acknowledged to be a man of superior ta- 

 lent and indefatigable diligence ; his assist- 

 ants are men of the same class, and of 

 unquestionable integrity — while the remu- 



neration these gentlemen reoetve is on the 



most liberal scale — the present race of artists 

 likewise are much too noble to resort to 

 dishonest means to promote their interest. 

 But let us suppose the reverse of this — that 

 the assistants, instead of possessing respects- 

 able abilities and scientific education, were 

 purposely selected as mere observing and 

 calculating machines, while their salary, 

 such as no gentleman could receive, was 

 scarcely adequate to the support of life; 

 and supposing that artists, feelingly alive to 

 their own interest, would not scorn to offer 

 a bribe when want might render its accept- 

 ance necessary ; what security would the 

 public have that the goodness of a chrono- 

 meter, as apparent from the official returns 

 of its performance, would depend on the 

 intrinsic excellence of the machine, and not 

 upon the sum paid by its maker to the per- 

 son who kept the rate ? In other wgrds 

 given the integrity and necessities of one 

 man, and the sum that may be gained by a 

 second through the malpractices of the first, 

 to determine the probable per-centage that 

 must be paid upon the profits of the second 

 to insure the dishonesty of the first. 



Montgolficr. — A rude heap of stones, 

 without any inscription, covered the re- 

 mains of the celebrated aeronaut Montgol- 

 ficr in the small chapel belonging to the 

 town of Balaruc-les-Bains (Herault) in 

 which place he died in 1810. M. Tou- 

 vron, who was appointed last year to the 

 living of Balaruc, has opened a subscription 

 to repair this discreditable neglect, and in 

 a short time the traveller who goes to view 

 the ruins of the ancient city of Thau will 

 find, on a marble tablet, the following 

 inscription from the pen of Bf. Touvron : 



Art gdnie du c^lihre J. Mongolfier, dont 

 les cendres reposent dans cette ^glise ; les 

 atnis des arts et des sciences.— Obiit Anno 

 1810. 



A Canal-digging Machine. — A cansil- 

 digging machine has recently been intro- 

 duced at Paris, to be worked, either by 

 horse, manual, or other moving power. It 

 is capable of digging ten feet deep, and a 

 power equal to eight horses is required to 

 work it. The machine will extract and 

 carry out of the canal ninety-six cubic feet 

 per minute. It advances gradually in 

 working, and digs eight feet in breadth at 

 one stroke. — Neivton's Journal of Arts. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



DOMESTIC. 



LONDON ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETT. 



March 10th — A paper was read by the 

 Astronomer Royal " On an appearance 

 hitherto unnoticed in the nebula of Orion," 

 who has noticed a similar appearance still 

 more decidedly, in another part of the same 

 nebula, at soms minutes' distance from the 



trapezium. A communication was i-ead 

 from Colonel Mark Beaufoy, containing, 

 1st. Observed transits of the moon, and 

 of moon culminating stars over the middle 

 wire of his transit-instrument, at Bushey 

 Heath in sidereal time. These were ob- 

 served in the course of 1825, and amount 

 to 322. 2d. Occultations of stars by the 

 moon, in number 6. 3d. Observations of 



