64 TRANSIT OF VENUS, 1874. HONOLULU. 



the morning of December 8, before going to "Waiakiki. Captain Smith had 

 taken with him the box chronometer, Frodsham 6551 (which he afterwards 

 lent to me for the longitude work). Mr. Flitner compared his pocket chro- 

 nometer with No. 6551 as below : 



h m s hms bras 



No. 655 1 2.54. o-o No. 655i 3. 17. o - o No. 655 1 3.45. o-o 



Pocket 2. 53. 22-4 Pocket 3. 16. 22-0 Pocket 3. 44. 22-4 



The external contact was first perceived at 3 h . 10 m . 6 s- 5 by the pocket 

 chronometer. " Internal contact was complete and clear sunlight between 

 the limbs " at 3 h . 35. 50 S -0. 



I copied the above figures from the original records on small scraps of 

 paper which Mr. Flitner brought with him. 



For the absolute error of No. 6551 on the afternoon of December 8 we 

 have the following connections : 



December 8, n b . a.m. 



h m s 



Flitnei-'s clock 10. 52. o'o "| 



\ Observer, Fhtner. 

 No. 655i 10. 52. 32-5 J 



December 9, near noon. 



Flitner's clock 1 1 . 45. o-o "1 



No. 655i 1 1. 4 5. 32-8 / 



Transit clock at Apua . . 17. 23. 5ro ") 



\ Nichol. 

 No. 655i o. 10. 3o-o / 



Transit clock at Apua ... 19. 4. 4.0-0 "1 



Chronometer (R) i. 5o. 22-5 J 



Flitner's clock 2. 35. o-oo ~i 



Chronometer (E) 2. 34. 52-85 / " " 



Transit clock at Apua ... 21. o. i 'o "1 



Chronometer (E) 3. 45. 25-o J 



Mr. Flitner was in the habit of determining the error and rate of his 

 standard clock by observations of the Sun with a transit instrument, carrying 

 to his observatory, one-third of a mile distant, a half-second's chronometer. 

 He considered that his clock had a gaming rate of O09. The clock itself 

 was a fine specimen of Molyneux's work, with mercurial pendulum, and was 

 solidly mounted on the wall of Mr. Flitner's house, where it kept a fairly 

 steady rate all the year round, being regulated to mean solar time. From 

 the above comparisons, accepting O s- 09 as the gaining rate of the clock, the 

 error of No. 6551 is deduced as follows : 



December 8, io h . 52 m . a.m., No. 655 1 fast 27 s " 47 ') ,. 



' } Hence the rate o 8 ' 14. 

 December 9, ii h . 40. a.m., .,, 27 s -56 J 



