ON THREE BALLOON ASCENTS IN 1865 AND 1866. 367 



Besides showing the name of the maker on each instrument as a voucher 

 for its accuracy, the Committee hope to obtain the stamp of the Government 

 as directed by Act of Parliament. But as the stamp could not be impressed 

 on the porcelain, a number will be marked and burnt on every instnunent, 

 and the same number with the Government stamp will be impressed on the 

 frame. 



The price cannot be at present determined. "We can only say that it 

 will not exceed £5 5s. ^iVhen the demand is sufficient the price may be 

 lowered. 



Whilst Mr. Casella has been employed upon our Mural Standard, a Bir- 

 mingham artist, Mr. Gargory, who piu'sues the same line of business, has 

 produced an instrument which may be called a School Metre, being espe- 

 cially adapted for school use. It is made of wood and ivory. It shows the 

 Metre together with the Yard, both Long and Cloth Measure, the principles 

 of its construction being generall}' the same with those of the Mural Stan- 

 dard. Its price will be about 7*'. 



The sum of £50 voted by the British Association at Birmingham having 

 been expended, it will be necessary to ask for a further grant. If the 

 General Committee of the Association should think it proper to send copies 

 of the Mural Standard to aU the places where the Association has met, or 

 even to a considerable number of them, a grant of =£100 -n-ill not be too 

 much ; and it may be deserving of consideration, that if philosophers, who 

 are proverbially poor, can afford such a sum as .£100, the Lords of Her 

 Majesty's Treasury, who have hitherto expended nothing on this great and 

 indispensable public provision, need not grudge any amount which may be 

 found requisite. 



An Account of Meteorological and Physical Observations in Three 

 Balloon Ascents made in the years 1865 and 1866 {in continuation 

 of twenty -five made in the years 1862, 1863, and 1864), under the 

 auspices of the Committee of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, by James Glaisher, F.R.S., at the request of the 

 Committee, consisting of Colonel Sykes, The Astronomer Eoyal, 

 Lord Wrottesley, Sir D. Brewster, Sir J. Herschel, Bart., Dr. 

 Lloy'd, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Glaisher, Mr. Gassiot, Prof. Ty^ndall, 

 Dr. Fairbairn, and Dr. W. A. Miller. 



At the first appointment of the Balloon Committee it was charged with the 

 determination of the law of the decrease of temperature with increase of ele- 

 vation, as the primary object of research ; and some two years since this law 

 seemed to have been pretty well determined, but up to that time the experi- 

 ments had been, for the most part, made in the months of summer and du- 

 ring the hours of afternoon. The principal duty of the Committee was 

 the verification of the results then found, by including experiments at other 

 times of the day, and at other seasons of the year. It was expected that 

 this part of the work to be done by the balloon would have been completed. 

 In carrying out these experiments, it was found that those taken in the morn- 

 ing hours did not accord with those taken in the afternoon hours, nor did 

 those taken at one time of the year agree with those taken at other times of 

 the year. Tn the course of these experiments an accidental descent just at 



