April 30, 1896] 



NATURE 



607 



Hilger ; Foucault apparatus for measuring the velocity 

 of light ; Ladd polariscope with la.rge collection of 

 crystals ; two extra large Nicols ; anemograph, Kind's 

 barograph, and standard barometer by Casella ; resistance 

 coils, large electromagnet and a great variety of electric 

 and physical apparatus, including one of- Prof. Rowland's 

 magnificent gratings. Among the smaller telescopes arc : 

 12-inch reflector by Browning-With, 



6-inch refractor by Dallmeyer, 



6 „ „ „ T. Cooke and Sons, 



4 ,, 



J ?> It It » tt 



All the foregoing are equatorially mounted with clock- 

 work, and there is an object-glass prism by Merz, which 

 fits either of the 6-inch telescopes. 



A 4-inch reversible transit by Cooke and Sons, with 

 stand for both the meridian and prime vertical, is mounted 

 in a detached hut. 



A Zollner's astrophotometer, a 12-inch altazimuth by 

 Simms, a variety of theodolites, sextants, reflecting 



Fig. 2.— Stellar Spectroscope, by T. Cooke and Sons, attached to the 

 15-inch Dunecht Refractor. (The divided circle is 18 inches in 



circles, cameras, spectroscopes, and prisms from 4^ 

 inches downwards, complete the outfit for work at the 

 observatory and on expeditions. 



A word must be said about the clocks. Two of these, 

 the Dunecht sidereal clock by Frodsham, and the excel- 

 lent Makdougall- Brisbane clock by Dent, from Calton 

 Hill, are mounted in the base of the pier of the larger 

 tower, shut in by thick double doors stuffed with " slag- 

 wool.' This guarantees a nearly uniform temperature 

 for both clocks, while the Brisbane timekeeper has the 

 further advantage of being subjected to a uniform 

 barometric pressure of 25 inches maintained inside a 

 cast-iron case. This latter part of the arrangement has 

 been most efficiently carried out by Messrs. Jas. 

 Ritchie and Son, of Edinburgh. Automatic signals from 

 this chamber serve to rate the mean time clock, which 

 is kept to Greenwich time, and transmits currents to 

 Edinburgh and Dundee for regulating the time signals. 



The 8'6-inch transit circle by Troughton and Simms, 

 formerly at Dunecht, is mounted in a detached double 

 iron house 80 feet west of the observatory, with which 

 it is connected by a covered way. It has two finely- 

 divided circles — -one of them movable. North and south 



of the instrument, but in the same room, are two 6- inch 

 collimators, which can be pointed on each other through 

 a hole in the i7J-inch central cube of the telescope. The 

 opening in the roof is 39 inches broad. 



The great 4-barrelled chronograph hy Cooke, from 

 Dunecht, capable of recording six hours' continuous ob- 

 servations on each barrel, is mounted in the base of the 

 west tower. It is supplemented by a small 3-pricker 

 fillet chronograph by Fuess, of Berlin. Both instruments 

 can be worked from six places in the observatory, and 

 with either of the sidereal clocks. The clocks can also 

 be compared automatically on the chronograph, or audibly 

 by a sounder. 



In the south wing the principal room is the library, 

 24 feet by 34 feet 6 inches, and 20 feet in height, 

 vvhich contains the astronomical library collected by Lord 

 Crawford at Dunecht, comprising about 15,000 volumes. 

 Divided amongst the computing rooms are the books 

 removed from Calton Hill. 



The observatory and instruments are lighted by elec- 

 tricity, generated by a 7-horse Crossley gas engine, 

 charging 53 large storage cells. 



Within the boundary wall of the observatory stand the 

 house of the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, two semi- 

 detached villas for assistants, and a gate-lodge for the 

 care-taker and messenger. 



.The transit circle and reflector have only just been 

 mounted, but the large refractor has been ip use since last 

 autumn, and in spite of the very unfavourable weather a 

 considerable number of observations of comets have been 

 secured with it. The provisionally-adopted coordinates 

 of the transit house are: Latitude -H 55' 55' 28"-o. 

 Longitude 12m. 44'2s. west of Greenwich. It is not 

 likely that-these will have to be materially altered. 



T 



1383, VOL. 53I 



THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN EDUCATION. 



H E Bishop of London should know somethmg about 

 education. He has been the Principal of a Training 

 College, an Inspector of Schools, and Head Master of 

 Rugby School, and he has written in a broad spirit on 

 educational matters. No wonder, then, he modestly con- 

 fessed at the London Diocesan Conference last week, that 

 " he happened to know a good deal about education." 

 There is one branch of knowledge, however, which he 

 thinks should be cut off from the educational tree nurtured 

 in elementary schools, and that is the branch of science. 

 " He had very often felt," he said, referring to the Educa- 

 tion Bill, "that it had been a very great evil that we 

 insisted upon instructing little children in elementary 

 schools in a great many scientific subjects, and he should 

 not have been at all sorry if all these scientific subjects 

 were got rid of entirely, and it had been left to the 

 managers, and to the teachers under the managers, to 

 introduce other subjects which would be more suitable.' 

 And, later on, he remarked : "Teaching of an advanced 

 character might very well be permitted in some schools, 

 but in regard to all these scientific schools, and the 

 apparatus connected with them, the sooner they were got 

 rid of the better." 



Evidently Dr. Temple is moved by the oppression 

 which schools suffer from science, and he desires to 

 emancipate them. But to any one fiimiliar with the facts 

 as to scientific instruction in this and other countries, and 

 the beneficial results which proceed from it, Dr. Temple's 

 strongly-expressed desire will appear astounding. The 

 schools in which science is successfully taught (and we 

 count success not so much by examinational results as by 

 the training of the mind and eye and hand, and the develop- 

 ment of the spirit of inquiry), invariably contain the most 

 intelligent scholars ; the towns or districts which possess 

 properly organised and equipped science schools contain 



