TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 41 
(a) That the probable results of the research will be beneficial, in the widest sense 
of that term, to the community at large, or to the various Departments of the State. 
(6) That the research is too costly, or commercially too unremunerative, to be 
undertaken and vigorously prosecuted by individuals. 
(c) That the research requires continuous uninterrupted work, extending over 
very long periods, and conducted by systematically organized establishments. 
The case under consideration completely satisfies these conditions. It is futile 
to expect that individuals will carry on continuously work which requires nume- 
rous well-equipped establishments conducted on a uniform system, the operations 
of which will certainly extend over generations, possibly over centuries. 
Whilst advocating the study of the sun as the rational basis of meteorology, the 
author does not desire to abandon those methods of observation now in use, though 
they admit of improvement; but he likens meteorology, as at present prosecuted, to 
studying the steam-engine without giving any attention to the furnace and boiler. 
On the Relative Sensitiveness of Thermometers differing in Size, Shape, or 
Materials. By G. J. Symons, Sec. Met. Soc. 
The author exhibited a series of 14 very carefully made thermometers, all differing 
either in the size or shape of the bulbs, or in the materials with which they were filled, 
some being filled with mercury and some with alcohol. They had been specially 
constructed with a view to testing the relative sensitiveness of different patterns and 
sizes. The results of the experiments had been printed in the ‘ Quarterly Journal 
of the Meteorological Society,’ and were briefly the following :—that very large 
spherical mercurial bulbs are very little better than those filled with alcohol, but 
that with small bulbs mercury is much the most sensitive. The new minimum 
thermometers (the bifurcated and the double cylinder) introduced respectively by 
Mr. Casella and Mr. Hicks, were highly praised. The author said that he brought 
them before the Section mainly in order to offer the loan of the entire series to any 
experimentalist, with more leisure than himself, who would develop and complete 
the inquiry which he had begun. 
On a New Form of Rain-gauge. By G. J. Symons, Sec. Met. Soc. 
The author exhibited and explained a new form of rain-gauge designed by him- 
self to facilitate accurate observations of the rate at which rain falls in heavy storms, 
and thus supply data on a subject of equal interest from a meteorological and engi- 
neering point of view. The arrangement is extremely simple. The rain is collected 
in a funnel 8 inches in diameter, is then led into a cylinder in which a copper float 
rests on a water-surface. As rain falls the float rises, and a fine cord passing round 
a horizontal axis causes it to revolve once for each inch of rain. At one extremity of 
this axis are two hands attached to separate wheels of such diameter, that while one 
revolves only once the other revolves five times. The former is the one attached 
to the axis, and thus one hand completes a rotation for one inch, and the other for 
five inches. Behind these hands is an opal-glass dial about one foot in diameter ; 
so that the appearance of the instrument is that of a clock, the minute- and hour- 
hands being replaced by hundredths of an inch and inches. The resemblance is car- 
ried further by the fact that arrangements have been made for the dial being illumi- 
nated at night by gas or oil. The author expressed much satisfaction with the way 
in which his design had been carried out by the maker, Mr, Pastorelli. 
INSTRUMENTS &c. 
On an Apparatus for showing the Interference of Sound, 
By Prof. W. F. Barrerr, 
On Tinprovements in Equatorial Clocks. By Howarp Gruss. 
1874, f 
