OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 57 



Third Report of the Committee ap^minted to consider and report on the 

 various Plans jjroposed for Legislating on the subject of Steam-Boiler 

 Explosions with a vieiv to their Prevention^ — the Committee con- 

 sisting of Sir William Fairbairn, Bart., C.E., F.R.S., &^c., John 

 Penn, C.£.,F./?.>S'., Frederick J. ]3ramwell, C.E., Hugh Mason, 

 Samuel Rigby, Thomas Schofield, Charles F. Beyer, C.E., 

 Thomas Webster, Q.C, Edward Easton, C.E., and Lavington 

 E. Fletcher, C.E. 



"SVuEN the Committee presented their last Heport oa the subject nf " Steam- 

 Boilcr Legislation" to the Meeting of the Eritish Association held at Edin- 

 burgh, it was fully expected that the measure, having for its object the pre- 

 vention of Steam-Boiler Explosions, which Avas tlieu before Parliament, 

 having been introduced by John Hick, Esq., Member for Bolton, as the 

 result of the inquiry bj' the Parliamentary Committee which sat upon this 

 subject during tlie Sessions of 1S70-71 — it was fully expected that this 

 measure would by this time not only have passed througli Parliament, but 

 also have been in active operation, so that some practical results might have 

 been arrived at. Such, however, has not proved to be the case. The Bill, 

 though read a first time in the House of Commons late in the Session of 1871, 

 and reintroduced this year as early as the 7th of March, has not yet passed 

 a second reading, having been postponed from time to time. It was thought 

 better to wait the maturity of Mr. Hick's Bill before assembling the Com- 

 mittee for consultation ; but this course, though considered advisable, has, 

 owing to the delay just referred to in the progress of the Bill, prevented the 

 Committee completing their report for presentation at this Meeting of the 

 British Association. Under these circumstances they request an extension of 

 time, and suggest their reappointment for another year, when they hope to 

 complete the task assigned them. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of James Glaisher, F.R.S., of the 

 Royal Observatory , Greenwich, Uobert P. Greg, F.R.S., Alex- 

 ander S. IIerschel, F.R.A.S., and Charles Brooke, F.R.S., 

 Secretary to the Meteorological Society, on Observations of Lumi- 

 nous Meteors, 1871-72; drawn up % Alexander S, Herschel, 

 F.R.A.S. 



AMO^'■G the objects whose special promotion it was suggested in the last Report 

 that the Committee would undertake by combined observations during the past 

 year, the attention of observers at several stations in Scotland and England 

 well used to accurate and systematic registry of shooting-stars was, as in 

 former years, frequently not unsuccessfully directed, at the request of the Com- 

 mittee, towards recording the appearances of shooting-stars visible ou the 

 annually recurring meteoric dates in Augnst, October, November, December, 

 January, and April. 



The August meteors were somewhat more brightly visible last year than 

 commonly, on the two successive nights of the 10th and 11th of August, and 

 the clearness and darkness of the sky enabled a more than ordinarily largo 

 number of meteors to be carefully observed. From a long list of meteor-paths 



1872. 1- 



