94 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1361 



under present conditions. Many of the pub- 

 lications named in Professor Oldenburg's list 

 will have to be bought, the costs of trans- 

 mission will be considerable, and accordingly 

 the undersigned have formed themselves into 

 a small committee for the collection and ad- 

 ministration of a fund for the supply of sci- 

 entific and literary publications, and possibly, 

 if the amoimt subscribed permits of it, of 

 other necessities, to these Russian savants and 

 men of letters. 



We hope to work in close association with 

 the Royal Society and other leading learned 

 societies in this matter. The British Science 

 Guild has kindly granted the committee per- 

 mission to use its address. 



We appeal for subscriptions, and ask that 

 cheques should be made out to the Treasurer, 

 C. Hagberg Wright, LL.D., and sent to the 

 British Committee for Aiding Men of Letters 

 and Science in Russia, British Science Guild 

 Oifices, 6 John Street, Adelphi, London, 

 W.C.2. 



Montague of Beaulieu, 

 Ernest Barker, 

 E. P. Oathoart, 

 A. S. Eddington, 



I. GOLLANCZ, 



R. A. Gregory, 



P. Chalmers Mitchell, 



Bernard Pares, 



Arthur Schuster, 



C. S. Sherrington, 



A. E. Shipley, 



H. G. Wells, 



A. Smith Woodward, 



C. Hagberg Wright. 



the objective, with a hole bored through ; B^ a 

 small piece of board nailed to the block B^ ; 

 P is a 45° 1-inch prism fastened to B^; L is 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



STAR-TIME OBSERVATIONS WITH AN 

 ENGINEER'S Y-LEVEL 



Desiring a check on a pendulum clock be- 

 longing t-o the Physics Department of the 

 University of the Philippines, independent of 

 the time-ball of the Manila Observatory, I 

 have been led to use the following makeshift 

 device. 



In Fig. 1, is the objective of an engi- 

 neer's T-level; B^ a wooden block fitted over 



Fig. 1. 



a small electric lamp. The whole attachment 

 is tilted forward a little so that when the axis 

 of the telescope is horizontal axial rays do not 

 come by reflection from the zenith, but from 

 a point about 2°or 3° from the zenith. Stray 

 light from the little lamp L illuminates the 

 fields so that the cross hairs are clearly seen. 

 Two somewhat stale dry cells on the floor give 

 enough light, but not so much as to drown the 

 image of a fourth raagnitude star. A small 

 switch is included in the circuit. 



When the instrimient is set up and levelled, 

 with no current on, the images of stars about 

 2° to 4° from the zenith are seen in different 

 parts of the field; if the telescope is rotated 

 about the vertical axis these images describe 

 arcs of circles across the field, Fig. 2. If 

 these arcs have horizontal chords from side 

 to side of the circular field. Fig. 3, the prism 

 is adjusted, i.e., the rays coming down to the 

 prism, their reflections into the telescope, and 

 the vertical axis of rotation are in the same 



Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 



plane. This adjustment is convenient, but 

 can not be made very exact; it is done by 



