Minutes of Proceedings. 199 



Transactions, ''On the Construction of Furnaces for High Heats," 

 was made in 1818. His ''System of Mechanics" was published 

 in Dublin in 1820. 



In the year 1824 Eobinson was appointed Director of the Armagh 

 Observatory, which had been founded by the munificence of Primate 

 Eobinson in 1793. Owing to the death of the founder before com- 

 plete arrangements were made, the Observatory was but indiffe- 

 rently furnished with instruments until 1827, when a transit instru- 

 ment, and a mural circle having a telescope of 3 "8 inches clear 

 aperture were set up, the gifts of the then Archbishop of Armagh, 

 Lord John George Beresford. Under the efficient direction of 

 Dr. Eobinson the results of this liberality were soon manifest in 

 the publication of three parts of the "Armagh Observations" for 

 1828-30 (4to, Dublin). In 1859 was pubKshed in 8vo, in Dublin, 

 with the aid of a Government Grant, on the recommendation of 

 the Eoyal Society of London, his work entitled, "Places of 5345 Stars 

 observed from 1828 to 1854 at the Armagh Observatory." The stars were 

 principally Bradley's stars, excepting the larger ones (of which special 

 observations were made at Greenwich), and those beyond 116° N. P.D. 

 "With very few exceptions the observations with the transit instrument 

 down to March, 1837, and those with the mural circle down to 1849, 

 were made by the Director himself. In the introduction to the volume 

 are given details respecting the instruments and methods of obser- 

 vation, that astronomers may be able to estimate for themselves the 

 degree of confidence which they can accord to the results. The labour 

 involved in the making of so large a number of observations (several 

 for each star), and in the subsequent reduction of the observations, was 

 very great. It was more especially for this Catalogue that the Eoyal 

 Medal of the Eoyal Society of London was awarded to Dr. Eobinson in 

 December, 1862. 



This Catalogue has been in very extensive use ; it has been em- 

 ployed in combination with others in the determination of the positions 

 of moon-culminating stars for the " I^autical Almanac." Oom of 

 Pulkova made a systematic comparison between it and Argelander's 

 " Abo Catalogue" {Astron. Naclir., No. 1408). From the great num- 

 ber of stars contained in the Armagh Catalogue, of whose places we 

 possess few or no recorded observations made elsewhere during the 

 years 1830 to 1850, it was specially prized by Argelander for investi- 



