54 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE.— 1915. 



Observatory is annexed to the house in which Mrs. Milne continues to 

 reside, and the Committee has to acknowledge gratefully her kind occa- 

 sional attention to Observatory matters. Th-e assistants who work 

 in the Observatory all live at a distance, and arrangements are sometimes 

 much facilitated by the help of some one residing on the s-[)ot. 



Items (D) and (E) are not readily separable because during the past 

 two years part of the work at Shide has been to experiment with new 

 instruments, as described below. Looking backward, item (E) covers 

 expenditure on three or four new machines ; the first, constructed by 

 Mr. Shaw at Milne's request and delivered soon after his death, was 

 satisfactorily ' damped ' but had not sufficient magnification. To get 

 more magnification, Mr. Shaw preferred to make a new machine rather 

 than alter the former. Meanwhile, Mr. Burgess, with the kind help of 

 Mr. A. E. Conrady, devised another t3'pe with optical magnification 

 (instead of mechanical as in Mr. Shaw's), which is being tried side by 

 side with the former. Finally, a Milne-Shaw machine has been made 

 for trial at Eskdalemuir alongside the GaUtzin and Wiechert machines. 

 Looking forward it is hoped that at least some such sum as item (E) may 

 be available annually for replacing the existing Milne machines, which 

 scarcely meet modern requirements. The conditions under which many 

 of them were estabhshed will be found described in the 1898 Keport 

 (Bristol), p. 179. The original Shide instruments were provided from the 

 Government grant ; later an improved twin-boom Milne was provided by 

 the generosity of Mr. Yarrow; the Victoria (B.C.) instrument from the 

 British Association grant (Toronto, 1897), which also provided half the 

 cost of the Mauritius instrument. Other machines were provided by 

 various Governments, observatories, and individuals, but it seems doubt- 

 ful how far their aid can be again invoked in this way, at any rate until the 

 advantages and working of an improved type of instrument have been 

 demonstrated by a number of good examples. 



II. Stations. — Destruction of Instruments at Cocos. 



A letter, dated April 1, 1915, from Mr. Walter Judd, Electrician- 

 in-Chief of the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Com- 

 pany, informed us that : ' the Seismograph installed at our Cocos Station 

 was destroyed by the landing party from the Emden last November.' 

 On April 12 a further letter "from the General Manager communicated 

 the following telegram from the Company's Manager at Singapore : 

 ' Meteorological insts. destroyed by Emden, Singapore advised 27 March, 

 Straits Government intend replace.' 



Probably the replacement must wait for more peaceful times. The 

 Cocos installation dates from 1909, and is due to the generosity of the 

 Company. 



Neiu Station at New'port {I. Wiyht).— In recent bulletins it will be 

 noticed that besides the Shide Station, one at Newport is quoted. This 

 is the station of Mr. W. H. Bullock, a builder in Newport, who did much 

 work for Milne, became keenly interested in Seismology on his own account, 

 and has devised an instrument of his own, with Milne suspension, smoked 

 paper drum and high magnification. It shows the beginnings of the 

 various phases very beautifully. At present there is no damping beyond 

 the friction of the point on the smoked paper, which is effective for small 

 movements, but not for large. Mr. Bullock is experimenting with electro- 



