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THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY. 



From the Annual Report to the Board of Visitors, presented on 

 June 2, we select the following extracts : — 



One of the most important departments in the Observatory is that 

 of making Galvanic Communications. Under this head, Mr. Airy 

 says : — " Our external galvanic communication has received a very 

 important change. We had found for some time that our two under- 

 ground wires leading to the Blackheath-gate of the Park, and there 

 adapted to communicate either with one of the Admiralty wires (to 

 the Admiralty, or to Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Deal) or with 

 one of the Submarine Company's wires (to the London Office, or to 

 Calais or Ostend), had become practically useless. One of the four 

 underground wires crossing Blackheath to the Lewisham Station of 

 the jS'orth Kent Railway (there communicating by the London 

 Bridge Station with Lothbury and with Deal) had shown signs of 

 decay, but the others were very good ; but about the month of 

 August last year the whole of the four wires failed. We have taken 

 up parts and replaced them by new wire, but apparently the whole 

 of the gutta-percha has perished. No special fault has been found, 

 but every yard is faulty. I determined after this to trust no more 

 to underground wires ; and having received the permission of the 

 Right Honourable the First Commissioner of Parks and Public 

 Works to extend wires at sufficient elevation above the Park — and 

 having been met in my application to the London District Telegraph 

 Company by the most liberal offer on their part — I have stretched 

 seven wires in the open air from the top of the Octagon Room to the 

 top of a house in George-street. From this point the wires are 

 carried on in a similar manner to the following destinations : — one is 

 the property of the London District Telegraph Company; four are 

 led to the Railway Station in Greenwich, whence, under the care of 

 Charles V. Walker, Esq., they are continued on poles till they rejoin 

 the continuation of the former North Kent lines at the railway junc- 

 tion (Mr. Walker is preparing arrangements for placing the wires in 

 open air all the way to the London Bridge Station) ; two are led 

 along the poles of the London District Telegraph Company to Dept- 

 ford Broadway, where they meet the lines of the Submarine Com- 

 pany, and where they will communicate by torn-plate either with 

 the Admiralty line or with the Submarine line, as formerly, at the 

 Blackheath-gate of Greenwich park." 



The peculiar object of interest at the annual visitation of this im- 

 portant establishment was the mounting of a new and magnificent 

 Ecmatorial Telescope by the Astronomer Royal, Professor Airy, sur- 

 passing in magnitude any other in this country or in France, and 

 nearly on a par with the celebrated instrument at Pulkowa, which 

 has achieved much for the science, and is an instance of the munifi- 

 cence of the Russian Government. The size of the object-glass at 



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