236 BULLETIN OF THE 



Meteorological Work. — The Regents of the University of the 

 State 0^ New York, endowed by the State Legislature with su- 

 pervisory functions over the public educational institutions of the 

 State, in 1825 established a system of meteorological observation 

 for the State, by supplying to each of the Academies incorporated 

 bv thera, a thermometer and a rain-gauge, and requiring them to 

 keep a daily register of prescribed form, to entitle them to their 

 portion of the literature fund of the State. In 182T, the Hon. 

 Simeon De Witt, Chancellor of the Board of Regents, associated 

 with himself Dr. T. Romeyn Beck and Professor Henry of the 

 Albany Academy, to prepare and tabulate the results of these 

 observations. The first Abstract of these collections (for the 

 year 1828) comprised tabulations of the monthly and yearly 

 means of temperature, wind, rain, etc., at all the stations, an 

 account of meteorological incidents generally, and a table of 

 "Miscellaneous Observations" on the dates of notable phases of 

 organic phenomena connected with climatic conditions. These 

 annual Abstracts, to which Henry devoted a considerable share 

 of his attention, were continued through a series of years and 

 were published in the "Annual Reports of the Regents of the 

 University to the Legislature of the State of New York.* The 

 third Abstract (for 1830) includes an accurate tabulation by 

 Henry of the Latitudes, Longitudes, and Elevations of all the 

 meteorological stations; over forty in number. 



ELECTRICAL RESEARCHES AT ALBANY; FROM 1827-1835. 



Of Henry's distinguished success as a lecturer and teacher, 

 in imparting to his pupils a portion of his own zeal and earnest- 

 ness in the pursuit of scientific knowledge, as well as in winning 

 their affection and in inspiring their esteem, it is not designed 

 here to discourse ; but rather of his solitary labors outside of his 

 professional occupation in communicating and diffusing knowl- 

 edge. Very shortly after his occupation of the academic chair 

 of mathematics and physics, he turned his attention to the ex- 

 perimental study of that mysterious agency — electricity. Profes- 

 sor Schweigger of Halle, had improved on Oersted's galvanic 

 indicator (of a single wire circuit) by giving the insulated wire a 

 number of turns around an elongated frame longitudinally enclos- 

 ing the compass needle, and by thus multiplying the effect of the 

 galvanic circuits, had converted it into a real meai^uring instrn- 

 ment — a " galvanometer, "f Ampere and Arago of Paris, develop- 



* Reports of Regents, &c. Albany, vol. i. 1829-1835. 



t The name of (ralvani (as oritjinal discoverer of chemico-electricity) 

 is usually retained to desigmte both the current and its generator; al- 

 though the chemico-electric pile and battery were reallj' first courived by 

 Volta in 1800. In the same manner Oersted is generally accounted the 

 discoverer of electro-magnetism, although he never devised an electro- 



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