30 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — 1916. 



tendence to Shide, and has been unsparing in his devotion to the work 

 of improving the Milne machines and the instrumental equipment 

 generally. 



II. General Notes and Bulletins. 



The Committee asks to be reappointed with a grant of 60Z. , in 

 addition to the annual grant of lOOL from the Caird Fund already voted, 

 and VOL for printing expenses. The annual budget was given in the 

 last Report and has remained essentially the same. The Government 

 Grant Fund administered by the Royal Society has voted a subsidy of 

 200Z. for 1916 as in recent years. 



Mr. Burgess is still in direct charge of the work at Shide, though he 

 has met various difficulties during the year. His time is divided in 

 about equal parts between Seismology and his business as a printer. 

 The departure of his printing staff for the war made it uncertain whether 

 he would be able to continue this arrangement. Fortunately he has 

 found a means of doing so, at any rate for the present ; and what 

 threatened to be a critical situation has thus been tided over. Mr. Pring 

 continues his work without change; but Miss Pring has been called 

 away to other work in London. Her place has been taken by Miss 

 Caws. 



The Shide Bulletins were printed and distributed up to December 

 1914 ; but on the outbreak of war the material which came to hand 

 became so scanty that it seemed doubtful whether the immediate con- 

 tinuation would be profitable. It seemed possible that further informa- 

 tion might come in later, and these hopes have now been partly realised, 

 especially as regards Russian stations. Meantime attention was turned 

 to the discussion of the records for 1913. which had been printed in 

 the earlier bulletins without discussion of epicentre, though collected 

 under the separate earthquakes (instead of, as in the Shide ' Circulars,' 

 under the observing stations). The greater part of this work is now 

 done, and a compendious form of printing is being devised. The print- 

 ing has naturally been also delayed by the interruption to Mr. Burgess's 

 business above mentioned. 



The time signals at Shide have suffei^ed some interruptions, partly 

 from causes not fully understood, partly from instrumental breakages, 

 especially in the gales of the winter. The small transit instrument 

 kindly lent by the Royal Astronomical Society has been used occasion- 

 ally for check ; but it received some accidental displacement which 

 resulted in uncertain records. The source of the trouble was detected 

 by Mr. Shaw on his visit in June last ; the instrument was restored to 

 its proper position and firmly fixed. 



III. Diurnal Wanderings of the Traces. 



In the last Report it was remarked that the introduction of a higher 

 magnification into the Milne-Shaw and Milne-Burgess machines had 

 brought with it inconveniences in the unsteadiness of the trace, partly 

 in short-period ripples as at Bidston, probably due to wind in some 

 way ; partly diurnal wanderings as at Shide. The behaviour of the two- 



