332 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



were tabulated and worked out on the same system, much might be 

 done to put the study of meteorology on a more scientific basis, and a 

 better knowledge could be obtained of the laws that govern the 

 phenomena of weather changes than can be deduced from isolated 

 observations or columns of statistical figures. 



He showed how all atmospheric disturbances were in some way 

 related to the great trade winds, and how the character of the winds 

 themselves, the smooth and steady northerly winds and the rough and 

 gusty south winds, indicated their origin, the one being drawn along 

 to replace uprisen air, and the other being pushed along by pressure 

 from behind. He showed how the return upper currents from the 

 tropical regions, having cooled as they flowed towards the poles, tended 

 to descend to the earth's surface, and, meeting the lower northern 

 current, produced the variable winds of the temperate regions. He 

 also showed the effect of the earth's rotation in inducing eastern and 

 western velocities to the northerly and southerly winds. 



His paper at Birmingham before the British Association, in 1865, 

 still further developed his graphic methods, and showed the interesting 

 and valuable results that could be obtained by minute and careful com- 

 parison of observations taken at three different stations Wrofctesley, 

 Liverpool, and Birmingham. His last paper communicated to the 

 British Association, " On the normal forms of clouds," is published in 

 the report of the Birmingham meeting for the year 1886. 



Other subjects than Meteorology exercised Mr. Osier's active mind. 

 In January, 1842, he gave a series of three lectures on Chronometry at 

 the Birmingham Philosophical Institution, in which he described the 

 various ways of measuring time from the earliest periods to the present 

 day, fully illustrating the subject by drawings and working models 

 specially constructed for the purpose. With these he showed the 

 methods of measuring time by sundials, water clocks, and other forms 

 of clepsydrae, and explained the various forms of escapement, and other 

 essential parts of modern clocks and watches. 



Immediately following these lectures he proposed establishing a 

 standard clock for Birmingham, and he collected funds with which he 

 procured one of the highest class, made by Dent, which was placed in 

 the front of the Philosophical Institution. He also purchased a transit 

 instrument and an astronomical clock to equip an observatory on the 

 roof of the building, and himself took the astronomical observations 

 for regulating the standard clock. By-and-bye, when he had fully 

 established the clock's accuracy, in the public estimation, he, on one 

 Sunday morning, altered the clock from Birmingham to Greenwich 

 time, without mentioning it to any one, and, though the difference 

 was remarked upon, the Church and private clocks and watches 



