ASTRONOMICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL WORKERS. 55 



dome, and tlie repeating circle under the north dome ; one dividing 

 wall extended from the entrance, and only door, on the east side, 

 across the building to the west side, so dividing it into two 

 rooms, but as both transit and mural circle were on the south 

 side of this wall, it had an opening in it from roof to floor for 

 each instrument ; there was no fireplace, nor any sign that the 

 building was meant for habitation, indeed the instruments were so 

 distributed as to make that almost impossible ; later, i.e., in 1832, 

 a residence was built on the west side. When the new transit 

 circle was put up, it was placed on the eastern side of the old 

 building. 



The instruments (see Appendices B and G) mentioned in the 

 introduction to the Pan-amatta Catalogue, as belonging to the 

 Observatory, were, a 5^ feet Transit Instrument, by Trough ton ; 

 a 2-foot Mural Circle, having a telescope of the same length, by the 

 same maker; a 16-inch Repeating Circle, by Reichenbach; a 46-inch 

 Achromatic Telescope, with equatorial motion and wire micrometer, 

 by Banks ; a Clock by Hardy, shewing sidereal time, and another by 

 Brequet shewing mean time. All these instruments were placed on 

 solid piers of masonry. These are all that are mentioned in the 

 Parramatta Catalogue. But Rumker, (Memoirs, Royal Astrono- 

 mical Society, Vol. Ill, p. 277), says: — "The pendulum apparatus 

 was made by Fortin of Paris, and brought to the colony by 

 Sir Thomas Brisbane. It consisted of a platinum ball, the cap 

 for the ball (which was attached to it by excluding the air with 

 a little grease) ; the knife edge suspension with the wire ; the 

 steel rod, the supporting plane ; the horizontal plane, capable of 

 being elevated and depressed, but there was no standard of 

 length with it " ; he then gives a figure of it. ' And in his 

 astronomical observations (Phil. Trans. 1829, Part III., preface), 

 he, in addition to the instruments already recorded, mentions two 

 instruments for observing the dip and variation of the magnetic 

 needle." 



Appendices B and G- give the complete list of Sir Thomas' 

 fit-out for the Observatory ; and of them I have now in the 

 Observatory in a more or less complete state the following : — 

 The Transit Instrument, 



Mural Circle, 



Repeating Circle, 



Equatorial, 

 *Pendulum apparatus. 



Hardy clock, 



Brequet clock, 



INIagnetic dip instrument and the books, 

 but the magnetic variation instrument I have never seen. It is 



* It is worth mentioninop that in the Philosophical Transactions, 18'23, Captain Kater 

 says :— " This Pendulum belonjjs to the Board of Longitude ; he is speaking of the one Sir 

 Thomas took to Parramatta, and which he sold to the New South Wales Government 

 for £S5. (See Appendix, date 10 Sept., 1827.) 



