ADDRESS. lvii 
Board of Trade and Admiralty are tested, standard thermometers are gra- 
duated, magnetic instruments are constructed, and their constants determined 
for foreign and colonial observatories, and sextants are also verified. 
An example of its peculiar functions is given in the very last Report (1861), 
where it appears that an instrument contrived by Professor William Thom- 
son, of Glasgow, for the photographic registration of the electric state of the 
atmosphere, has been constructed by Mr. Beckley in the workshop of this 
Observatory, with mechanical arrangements devised by himself, and that it 
has been in constant and successful operation for some time. Those who 
have experienced the difficulty of procuring the actual construction of appa- 
ratus of this kind devised by themselves, and the still greater difficulty of 
conveniently carrying out the improvements and alterations required to per- 
fect it when brought into use, will agree that the scientific importance and 
utility of an establishment cannot be overrated, in which under one roof are 
assembled highly skilled persons not only capable of making and setting to 
’ work all kinds of instruments for philosophical research, but also of gradually 
altering and improving them, as experience may dictate. 
The creation of this peculiar Observatory must be regarded as one of the 
triumphs of the British Association. 
As far as the Association is concerned, its maintenance has absorbed be- 
tween five and six thousand pounds, the annual sum allotted to it from our 
funds having for each of the last six years reached the amount of £500. 
The construction of the Photoheliograph may be also quoted as an ex- 
ample of the facilities given by this establishment for the developing and 
perfecting of new instruments of observation. 
A suggestion of Sir John Herschel in 1854, that daily photographs of the 
sun should be made, has given birth to this remarkable instrument, which at 
first bore the name of the Solar Photographic Telescope, but is now known 
as the Kew Photoheliograph. It was first constructed under the direction 
of Mr. De la Rue by Mr. Ross. The British Association aided in carrying 
out this work by assigning the dome of the Kew Observatory to the instrument, 
and by its completion in 1857 in their workshops by Mr. Beckley the as- 
sistant; but the expense of its construction was supplied by Mr. Oliveira, 
amounting to £180. This instrument was conveyed to Spain under the care 
of Mr. De la Rue on occasion of the eclipse in 1860, who most successfully 
accomplished the proposed object by its means, and it was replaced at Kew 
on his return. But to carry on the daily observations for which it was con- 
structed requires the maintenance of an assistant, for which the funds of the 
Association are inadequate, although it has already supplied more than £200 
for that purpose. Mr. De la Rue, in consequence of the presence of the 
Heliograph at Kew being found to interfere with the ordinary work of the 
establishment, has kindly and generously consented to take charge for the 
present of the instrument ‘and of the observations, at his own Observatory, 
where celestial photography is carried on. But it is obvious that the 
continuation of these observations for a series of years, which is neces- 
sary for obtaining the desired results, cannot be hoped for unless funds are 
provided. 
I cannot conclude ‘this sketch of the objects in the Physical Section to 
which the funds of the Association have been principally devoted, without 
alluding to Mr. Scott Russell’s valuable experimental investigations on the 
motion and nature of waves, aided by £274. 
If we now turn to Geology we find £2600 expended, of which £1500 were 
employed in the completion of the Fossil Ichthyology of Agassiz, and upon 
