Report of the Kew Committee. 465 



to the Committee, the Meteorological instruments at the Observatories 

 of Armagh, Falmouth, Oxford (Radcliffe), and Valencia have been 

 inspected by Mr. Whipple, and those at Aberdeen and Stonyhurst by 

 Mr. Baker, during their respective vacations. 



Assistance has also been given in arranging the plans, designs, &c., 

 for the New Observatory, now in progress of erection at Falmouth. 



With the concurrence of the Meteorological Council, weekly abstracts 

 of the meteorological results have been regularly forwarded to, and 

 published by "The Times" and "The Torquay Directory." Data 

 have also been supplied to the Council of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society, the editor of " Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine," 

 the Secretary of the Institute of Mining Engineers, Messrs. Gwilliam, 

 Mawley, Rowland, and others. The cost of these abstracts is borne 

 by the recipients. 



The weekly abstracts of meteorological results, which have been 

 published by the " Illustrated London News " without interruption 

 since 1856, were discontinued in July last, at the request of the 

 proprietors, owing to changes being introduced in the form of publi- 

 cation of the paper. 



Electrograph. This instrument was temporarily dismounted in 

 May, whilst some repairs and painting of the instrument room were in 

 progress, and recently some trouble has been experienced in keeping 

 the potential of the charge constant, otherwise it has been maintained 

 in continuous action. 



The tabulation of the curves is at present in arrear, not having 

 been completed beyond February 28, 1882. 



Its scale value has been redetermined on two occasions by means 

 of the Portable Electrometer, White No. -53, such determinations 

 being necessary after every readjustment of the instrument. 



III. SOLAR OBSERVATIONS. 



The sketches of Sun-spots, as seen projected on the photoheliograph 

 screen, have been made on. 185 days, in order to continue Schwabe's 

 enumeration, the results being given in Appendix II, Table IV. 



A few experiments were made in June with the Photoheliograph, 

 with a view of testing the suitability of certain plates prepared by 

 Messrs. Morgan and Kidd for solar photography. With this excep- 

 tion nothing has been done in that branch during the year. 



Transit Observatiom. Frequent observations of both solar and 

 sidereal transits have been made, for the purpose of keeping correct- 

 local time at the Observatory. 



Numerous clock and chronometer comparisons have been also 

 made. The Observatory Chronometers, Parkinson and Frodsham 

 No. 2408, and Molyneux No. 2125, have been cleaned and readjusted, 



