KEW OBSERVATORY 161 



such as the East India Company, the Indian Trigono- 

 metrical Survey, H.M. observatory at the Cape, 

 observatories in Java and at Melbourne, Hobart, 

 Madrid, Lisbon, Kronstadt and elsewhere, the 

 Smithsonian Institution, etc. Instruction was given 

 to members of Livingstone's African expeditions, to 

 officers of the Oregon Boundary Commission, and in 

 other such cases. 



The investigation of the upper atmosphere (a 

 subject in which, through a research committee, the 

 Association has maintained its interest in recent 

 years) appears as a function of the observatory 

 organisation in 1852, when the Council requested 

 the Kew Committee ' to communicate with parties 

 ascending hi balloons, and to arrange, when practi- 

 cable, for the accurate observation of meteorological 

 phenomena in the ascents.' Following upon this 

 request, the committee ' put itself into communica- 

 tion with the veteran aeronaut, Mr. Green, and 

 arranged for four ascents with his great Nassau 

 balloon/ The prime objects of investigation were the 

 laws of f decrement of temperature and of aqueous 

 vapour in ascending in the atmosphere.' The 

 balloon carried a double set of instruments, con- 

 structed under the superintendence of Welsh, and 

 including syphon barometers, dry- and wet-bulb 

 thermometers, and hygrometers. The first ascent 

 at least was an occasion of some notoriety : it took 

 place (as a matter of history) from the famous 

 Vauxhall Gardens, on August 17, 1852 ; members 

 of the Councils of the Association and the Royal 

 Society and other men of science were ' invited to 

 assist,' and a number of meteorologists in various 

 parts of the British Isles collaborated, during this 



