168 Roi/ol Societij. 



quoted, "All that the miner requires to ensure security, are small 

 •wire cages to surround his candle or lamp, which may be made for 

 a few pence, and of which various modifications may be adopted. 

 And the application of this discovery will not only preserve hira 

 from the fire-damp, but enable him to apply it to use and to destroy 

 it at the same time that it gives him a useful light." A month after 

 the invention Sir Humphry informed the Society that his cylinder 

 lamps had been used in two of the most dangerous mines near New- 

 castle with perfect success. 



"On the Meteorology of the Lake District of Cumberland and 

 We.Htnoreland, with a continuation of the results of experiments 

 on the fall of Rain at various heights, up to 3166 feet above the 

 Sea-Level." By J. F. Miller, Esq., F.R.A.S. Communicated by 

 Lieut.-Col. Sabine, R.A., For. Sec. R.S. 



In this communication are given the results of the observations of 

 the quantity of rain which has fallen during the year 1849 at twenty 

 stations in the valleys, and six mountain stations, varying in altitude 

 above the sea from 500 feet to 3166 feet. There is also given a 

 table of tlie temperature at Seathwaite in Borrowdale during the 

 year IS-iQ. 



With reference to the mountain gauges, the author observes that, 

 on the wliolo, the results are similar to those of the three preceding 

 years, but, as might be looked for in a dry year like the past, the 

 quantities of rain deposited at the various stations are more nearly 

 equal than usual. With respect to the temperature, he observes that 

 the statement he made in his last communication, that "the inhabit- 

 ' ants of the Lake District valleys enjoyed a milder and more equable 

 climate than the residents in the open country, and particularly in 

 the winter months," is confirmed by the thermometrical results of 

 the present winter (IS^Q-SO). 



" On the relation of the Air and Evaporation Temperatures 



to the Temperature of the Dew-Point, as determined by Mr. 



- Glaisher's Hygrometrical Tables founded on the factors deduced 



from the Six-hourly observations made at the Royal Observatory, 



Greenwich." By J. F. Miller, Esq., F.R.A.S. Communicated by 



1 Lieut.-Col, Sabine, R.A., For. Sec. R.S. 



fi After pointing out the importance of the hygrometer, both in a 

 ..scientific and a practical point of view, the author goes into the 

 . question of the advantages and disadvantages attending the use of 

 , Daniell's hygrometer, and the lelative merits of this instrument 

 r and the dry and wet-bulb thermometers. Although satisfied of the 

 , accuracy of Mr. Glaisher's Tables (founded on the Greenwich Ob- 

 j.servations), which show at once the relation of the temperature of 

 evaporation to that of the dew-point, he was unwilling to abandon 

 , the use of Daniell's apparatus for that of the wet and dry-bulb ther- 

 mometers, slight as is the trouble of observing them, without personal 

 experience of the correctness of the tables from which the dew-})oint 

 was to be deduced. He therefore instituted a series of perfectly com- 

 parable ol)scrvations by the two methods, and in this communication 



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