Sas 
NATORE 
[FEBRUARY II, 1904 
demonstrate various classes of observations with which we 
are concerned in this short history. Meteorological in- 
quiries on a large scale were organised at home and in 
India, and observatories were established at Potsdam, Paris, 
and London, with the main object of studying solar 
changes. At the same time steps were taken to resume 
observations in the tropics. It is not out of place here to 
make a brief reference to what was done in Britain and 
in India. : 
The Government took this action in consequence of a 
strong recommendation of the Royal Commission on 
Science, presided over by the late Duke of Devonshire, for 
the establishment by the State of an observatory of solar 
physics in which inquiries relating to the nature of the sun 
and its changes should be fostered, and various investi- 
gations which were necessary should be carried on. 
The commission also proposed that similar institutions 
should be established in various parts of the Empire. 
The ground on which the Royal Commission, and sub- 
sequently a memorial presented to the Government by the 
British Association, urged this new departure was that, 
in the opinion of a considerable number of scientific men, 
there was a more or less intimate connection between the 
state of the sun’s surface and the meteorology of the earth, 
and they directed attention to the fact that recent indepen- 
dent investigations on the part of several persons had led 
them to the conclusion that there was a similarity between 
the sun-spot period, periods of.famine in India, and cyclones 
in the Indian Ocean. The memorialists concluded by 
saying :— 
““We remind your Lordships that this important and | 
practical scientific question cannot be set definitely at rest | 
the | 
without the aid of some such institution as that 
establishment of which we now urge.”’ 
The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education | 
referred this memorial to a committee, consisting of Prof. 
Stokes, Prof. Balfour Stewart, and General Strachey, for | 
their opinion as to whether a commencement might not be 
made to give effect to the proposals of the memorialists by 
utilising the chemical and physical laboratories at South 
Kensington, as the proposed observatory must be more 
chemical and physical than astronomical. 
paragraph appeared in the terms of reference :-— 
““ Although we are not at present in a position to con- | 
sider the establishment of a physical observatory on a 
comprehensive scale, we believe that some advantage can 
be gained if a new class of observations can be made with 
the means at command, since the best method of conduct- 
ing a physical laboratory may thus be worked out experi- 
mentally, and an outlay eventually avoided which, without 
such experience, might have been considered necessary.’’ 
While the discussion as to the establishment of a solar 
physics observatory in this country was going on, Lord 
Salisbury, who was then Secretary of State for India, per- 
mitted me to send him a memorandum on this subject. In 
it I pointed out that what we wanted, especially in reference 
to solar inquiries, was to learn, day by day, what the sun 
was really doing, which India and other tropical countries 
always could tell us, while it seemed almost impossible that 
we should ever get sufficiently continuous records in 
England. 
I gave the following extracts :— 
“Solar research is now being specially carried on in 
Europe at— ; 
““(1) Potsdam, in the new Sonnenwarte. 
“‘(2) Paris, in the new physical observatory. 
““(3) Rome and Palermo. 
““(4) South Kensington, in connection with the Science 
and Art Department. 
““(5) At Greenwich, Wilna, and other places it is carried 
on in a less special way. 
“In these European observatories, however, especially 
in the more northern ones, we are attempting to make 
bricks without straw, that is, the climate is such that 
the observations are often interrupted, at times for weeks 
together, while, in addition to this, in winter the sun’s 
altitude is so small that fine work is impossible. 
“While this state of things holds in Europe, in India, 
on the other hand, one has an unlimited and constant 
supply of the raw material, by which I mean that here 
one can, if one chooses, obtain observations of the finest 
NO. 1789, VOL. 69] 
The following | 
quality in sufficient quantity all the year round. I may 
even go further, and say that, limiting my remark to 
English ground, we have in India a monopoly of the raw 
material.’’ 
The prayer of the memorandum was granted, and shortly 
afterwards I had the pleasure of sending out one of my 
assistants to India. Unfortunately, he died soon after the 
first series of daily photographs of the sun had been com- 
menced, but eventually the Trigonometrical Survey Depart- 
ment took the matter up, an observatory was built at Dehra 
Dun, and India began its work, and I am thankful to say 
that it has gone on continuously ever since. 
It was not until 1879, and after a letter from the Duke 
of Devonshire, that a sum of 5oo!. was taken on the 
estimates to replace the assistance formerly obtained by 
‘myself from the Government Grant Fund administered by 
the Royal Society, and to allow of more research work 
being undertaken. At the same time the Solar Physics 
Committee was appointed. The object sought was to make 
trial of methods of observation, to collect and discuss results, 
to bring together all existing information on the subject, 
and to endeavour to obtain complete series of observations 
along the most important lines. 
This State action was taken because the sun has to be 
studied, if studied at all, continuously, because it is ever 
changing, and the more we study it the longer are the cycles 
which we find to be involved; hence, all inquiries into its 
nature must be on an Imperial basis. Individuals die, 
nations remain. Nor is this all. Observatories are not 
only wanted in the centres of intellectual activity where 
research can be conducted in a scientific atmosphere, but 
there must be others to obtain the necessary observations 
in those favoured regions of our planet in which the 
maximum of sunshine can be depended upon. 
The then Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy, was most 
sympathetic, and as a result of this State action the little 
observatory at South Kensington was shortly afterwards 
enlarged; it has considerably grown since then, but it is 
still in the experimental stage. Although, perhaps, | am 
not the one to say it, I am prepared to take the responsi- 
bility of stating that it is now one of the best equipped for 
its special work in the world. It certainly is the shabbiest 
to look at. Irreverent comparisons have been made even 
in the House of Commons, the general appearance of its 
wood and canvas huts having been likened to that of a 
more or less disreputable looking travelling menagerie, 
but, at all events, it is instrumentally efficient, and that for 
the present must be sufficient. 
During the last quarter of a century a great deal of work 
has been going on, and the colonies and dependencies of 
Britain have also been doing yeoman service; very little 
has been said about it, because not all departments are in 
the habit of advertising themselves, and Blue Books are 
not as a rule light reading. In the first place, the Indian 
daily photographic record, which was weak during a month 
or two during the south-west monsoon, was supplemented by 
the erection of a duplicate instrument at the Mauritius, and I 
am again thankful to say that the work has gone on at the 
Mauritius continuously since. Thus we have now two 
tropical records, which, taken together, may be described 
as absolutely continuous, of solar changes sent to us in 
the most Imperial fashion by two observatories. Another 
appeal was made to Australia. For a time records were 
sent us, but I am sorry to say that after a time they ceased. 
These records are sent regularly with every precaution 
against loss to the observatory at South Kensington, and 
for the days when no photographs have been taken at 
Greenwich the necessary photographs are transmitted there, 
where they are reduced in continuation of the record com- 
menced in 1873 there, in succession to Kew. 
What has been the result of this? The late Astronomer 
Royal took up this work at Greenwich in 1873. In 1874, 
1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, the average number of days on 
which it was possible to obtain photographs in each year 
was a little more than 160, the exact figures being 159, 
161, 167, 171, 149. This was Greenwich working alone, 
national work. e 
Next, we come to the Imperial work. Selecting years at 
random, and dealing with 1889 to 1893, I find that we 
obtained photographs of the sun in 1889 for every day in the 
year except five, in 1890 for every day except four, in 1891 
