384 MY LI I 



Carpenter, and Mr. Walsh, and all three agreed that it 

 showed clearly what should be seen in the two cases, while 

 the former declared their firm belief that Fig. 2 showed what 

 would be seen. 



When the pole was set up and the mark put upon the 

 bridge, Mr. Carpenter accompanied me, and saw that their 

 heights above the water were the same as that of the telescope 

 resting on the parapet of the bridge. What was seen in the 

 large telescope was sketched by Mr. Coulcher and signed by 

 Mr. Carpenter as correct, and is shown in the following dia- 

 gram which was reproduced in the Field newspaper (March 

 26, 1870), and also in a pamphlet by Carpenter himself. But 

 he declared that this proved nothing, because the telescope 

 was not levelled, and because it had no cross-hair ! 



At his request to have a spirit-level in order to show if 

 there was any " fall" of the surface of water, I had been to 

 King's Lynn and borrowed a good Troughton's level from a 

 surveyor there. This I now set up on the bridge at exactly 

 the same height above the water as the other telescope, and 

 having levelled it very accurately and called Mr. Carpenter 

 to see that the bubble was truly central and that the least 

 movement of the screws elevating or depressing it would 

 cause the bubble to move away, I adjusted the focus on to 

 the distant bridge, and showing also the central staff and its 

 two discs. 



Mr. Coulcher looked at it, and then Mr. Carpenter, and 

 the moment the latter did he said " Beautiful ! Beauti- 

 ful ! " And on Mr. Hampden asking him if it was all right, 

 he replied that it was perfect, and that it showed the three 

 points in " a perfect straight line " ; " as level as possible ! " 

 And he actually jumped for joy. Then I asked Mr. Coulcher 

 and Mr. Carpenter both to make sketches, which they did. 

 We then fixed a calico flag on the parapet to make it more 

 visible, and drove back with the instruments to Old Bedford 

 bridge, where I set up the level again at the proper height 

 above the water, and again asked both the referees to make 

 sketches of what was seen in the level-telescope. This they 

 did. Mr. Carpenter's was rather more accurately drawn, and 



