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XXIIT. 



AWAED OF THE BOYLE MEDAL TO SIR HOWAED GRUBB, F.E.S., 



1912.' 



In recommending the award of the Boyle Medal to Sir Howard Grubb, it 

 is necessary to explain why it is that the proposal is only now submitted to 

 the Council. When the Medal was instituted in the year 1896, it was 

 thouglit desirable that no honorary oiEcer of the Society should be eligible 

 for the award ; accordingly a rule to that effect was adopted, and remained in 

 force until, at the suggestion of this Committee, the Council repealed it in 

 December, 1911. Sir Howard Grubb has been an honorary officer of the Society 

 since the year 1889 ; hence it is that it is only now in the power of the 

 Society to mark its appreciation of merit which would otherwise have been 

 recognized long ago. 



Sir Howard Qrubb's first communication to the Eoyal Dublin Societ}' 

 was received on November 15th, 1869, and his most recent communication 

 was received on November 8th, 1911. His contributions to the scientific 

 publications of the Society have therefore already extended to a period of 

 forty-two years. 



Many of Sir Howard Grubb's communications take the form of suggested 

 improvements in the construction and mounting of telescopes and other 

 optical instruments. It is, however, in the actual construction of the 

 instruments that Sir Howard Grubb's work demands tlie most marked 

 recognition the Society can bestow. 



The Melbourne telescope, which is described in the Journal of the Royal 

 Dublin Society for 1869, was the first large reflector to be mounted equatorially, 

 and thus prepared the way for the great equatorial reflectors of more recent 

 years, which have been employed with conspicuous success in celestial 

 photography, and have greatly increased our knowledge of the nebulse. 



The great refractor erected for the Austrian Government in Vienna in 

 1878 exceeded by one inch the aperture of the largest telescope then in 



' The presentation was made at the Scientific Meeting of the Royal Dublin Society held on the 

 16th April, 1912, when the medal was handed to Sir Howard Griibb by the chairman (Professor John 



Joly, D.SC, P.R.S.). 



