June 14, 1888] 



NATURE 



155 



During the year 1887, Osier's anemometer showed an 

 excess of about 17 revolutions of the vane in the positive 

 direction N., E., S., W., N., excluding the turnings which 

 are evidently accidental. 



The number of hours of bright sunshine recorded during 

 1887 by Campbell's sunshine instrument (Prof. Stokes's 

 improved pattern) was 1401, which is about 190 hours 

 above the average of the preceding ten years. The 

 aggregate number of hours during which the sun was 

 above the horizon was 4454, so that the mean proportion 

 of sunshine for the year was o - 3i5, constant sunshine 

 being represented by 1. 



The rainfall in 1887 was 199 inches, being 4"8 inches 

 below the average of the preceding forty-six years. 



There has been no failure in the automatic drop of the 

 Greenwich time-ball, but on four days the ball was not 

 raised on account of the violence of the wind. 



The automatic drop of the Deal time-ball failed on six 

 days owing to interruption of the telegraphic connections, 

 and on two days high wind prevented the raising of the 

 ball. There has been no case of failure of the 1 p.m. 

 signal to the Post Office Telegraphs. 



There have been twenty-three failures in the automatic 

 signals from the Westminster clock since the date of the 

 last report. The error of the clock was insensible on 25 

 per cent, of the days of observation, is. on 38 per cent., 

 2s. on 20 per cent., 3s. on 15 per cent., and 4s. on 2 per 

 cent. 



Provision has been made in the estimates for the ex- 

 pense of a re-determination of the difference of longitude be- 

 tween Greenwich and Paris, and correspondence has been 

 carried on with the French authorities on the subject. The 

 regretted death of General Perrier occurred before any 

 definite plan had been settled ; but his successor, M. le 

 Commandant Bassot, has taken the matter up warmly in 

 concert with Admiral Mouchez, and the French Bureau 

 des Longitudes has approved the scheme, which is to 

 include a determination of the longitude of Dunkirk. 

 Three French delegates (M. Lcewy, M. Bassot, and M. 

 Defforges) propose to visit Greenwich very shortly to 

 settle the details of the plan of operations which it is 

 intended to carry out in the autumn. In preparation for 

 the work, Mr. Turner and Mr. Lewis have observed for 

 practice, by eye and ear, a number of galvanometer 

 signals sent by another observer and automatically 

 registered on a chronograph, five sets of ten signals 

 having been recorded on each of seven days. 



The Report concludes as follows : — 



In my last Report it was suggested that the instrumental 

 equipment of the Observatory should be supplemented by a 

 photographic refractor of 13 inches aperture (equatorially 

 mounted) to enable Greenwich, a> the National Observatory, to 

 take its share in the scheme for forming a photographic map of 

 the heavens, and for thus extending our knowledge of the places 

 of the fixed stars. Consequent on the resolution of the Board of 

 Visitors at the last visitation, I brought this question of the 

 insufficiency of our instruments for the present wants of astronomy 

 to the notice of the Admiralty and of the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer, and the matter is still under the consideration of 

 the Government. If the Royal Observatory is to take part in 

 this work of carrying out one of the principal objects for which 

 the Astronomer-Royal was appointed, it appears to be essential 

 that a decision should be arrived at without delay, in view of the 

 circumstance that thirteen Observatories (including those of Mel- 

 bourne and Sydney in our own colonies) have already ordered 

 their instruments, which are to be completed by the end of the 

 present year. 



Allusion was made in the last Report to the increased demands 

 made on the Observatory in recent years both by the scientific 

 nnd the general public, and in view of the consequent develop- 

 ment of work it now becomes necessary to review the position 

 of the establishment, which was constituted many years ago, 

 when the conditions were very different. In order to understand 

 the difficulty of the present situation it is necessary to bear in 

 mind the following facts : — In 1835 there were five assistants 

 (excluding the chief assistant), having no computers to superin- 



tend, no extraneous work beyond the care of a relatively small 

 number of chronometers for the Navy, m magnetic and meteoro- 

 logical observations, no altazimuth observations, no spectroscopic 

 and photographic observations. At the present time there are 

 eight assistants (excluding the chief assistant) having fifteen com- 

 puters to superintend, and of this staff two assistants are absorbed 

 by the magnetic and meteorological branch, one by the altazimuth, 

 and two by the spectroscopic and photographic branch, leaving 

 only three assistants to do the astronomical work, which in 1835 

 required five assistant^, and in addition to perform all the ex- 

 traneous duties which the Astronomer- Royal has felt it desirable 

 to undertake in the public interest. 



Under these circumstances it becomes a matter for serious 

 c msideration whether, unless adequate provision be made for 

 the primary objects of the Observatory, extraneous work, such 

 as the supply of time-signals, may not have to be dropped. The 

 service of hourly time signals throws considerable work on 

 myself and the staff of the Observatory, and, as it is purely 

 voluntary, it appears to me that a condition of its maintenance 

 must be that arrangements shall be made to enable the proper 

 work of the Observatory to be carried on and suitably developed. 



INDUSTRIAL TRAINING. 



A T a meeting held at the Mansion House on Friday 

 •£*• last, in support of the scheme for establishing 

 Polytechnic Institutes in South London, an able and 

 interesting speech was delivered by Lord Salisbury. 

 Having pointed out that of late years much had been 

 done for primary education, he went on to show that a 

 sound system of secondary education for the great mass 

 of the people was not less necessary. Secondary educa- 

 tion, as we know it at present, had been established for 

 the benefit of classes who in the main had not to work 

 for their living. Plainly, therefore, it was not adapted to 

 the needs of the working classes. " What we have now 

 to do," he continued, " is to provide an education which 

 will develop for each man the faculties that Nature has 

 given him in such a manner that he may be as active, 

 profitable, and prosperous a member of the community 

 as possible." Lord Salisbury then passed in review the 

 efforts which have been made in London to meet the 

 demand for technical instruction, and concluded as 

 follows : — 



" I have only one more word to say, just to call your 

 attention to another aspect of this case and to commend 

 it to your efforts. We live in a time when men multiply 

 fast, but apparently the means of supporting them do not 

 multiply as rapidly ; when there is vehement competition 

 and occasionally intervals of deep depression. And if 

 you should look more closely, you will find that one cause 

 at least of this phenomenon is that man, as the mere 

 owner of muscle, is being edged out by another and more 

 powerful competitor. Merely as an agent of physical 

 force, as the possessor of the power of labour, the steam- 

 engine is a competitor which drives him easily out of the 

 market. And more and more the mere unskilled labour is 

 being made unnecessary by the development of the forces 

 which mechanical science has discovered. And as the 

 world goes on, you must expect this tendency to increase. 

 You must expect mechanical force to become more varied 

 and more powerful and more cheap, and the competition 

 with human arms and limbs to become more hopeless. But 

 there is one region where the machine can never follow 

 the human being, and that is in the exercise of thought. 

 In skill, in cultivated mind, in the power to adapt the 

 processes of thought to the laws of Nature, in all that we 

 call 'skilled labour' of the highest kind, in that man 

 must always have a monopoly, and need fear no encroach- 

 ment from the competition of the steam-engine. It is 

 to the development of his powers in that respect that the 

 increase in the means of subsistence and the opening of 

 new paths of self-support must be found. On all of us, in 

 whatever position we are, is pressing, as one of the most 

 anxious subjects of public care, the discovery of methods 



