432 THE MANILA OBSEIiVATORY 



observatory at Manila in 1895 by Mr Robert H. Scott, .secretary of 

 tbe International Meteorological Societ}^ asking the Manila Obser- 

 vatory to cooperate in tlie international work of cloud measurements, 

 which was to begin May 1, 1896. The director answered favor- 

 ably, and thus far the Manila Observatory is the only observatory 

 in the Far East which has cooperated with the sixteen ob.servatories 

 of other parts of the world in the international enterprise of cloud- 

 measuring. The details of this work can be found in the publication 

 of the observatory, Las Nubes en el Archipielago Filipino. 



The equipment of the meteorological de])artment of the observa- 

 tory is very complete, including instruments for direct observation 

 and self-recording instruments. 



Among recent publications of the observatory is a very valuable 

 treatise on the t3'phoons of the Philippines Ijy the director, entitled 

 Baguios o Cyclones Filipinos (1897). It has been honorably men- 

 tioned by foreign journals and is now l)eing translated into various 

 languages. Another good work of the director of the observatory is 

 the invention of the instrument called the barociclonometro. It is a 

 combination of an aneroid barometer similar to that of Father 

 Faura, but can be adapted to any latitude, and of a cyclonometer. 

 It is easily handled, and with little labor will indicate to the observer 

 the existence, bearing, and distance of the center of a typhoon. 



The installation of the astronomical department was completed in 

 1894, when the section was transferred to a special building, a solid 

 construction erected in the grounds of the observatory at a cost of 

 nearly 840,000. Here is the great revolving dome, nearly ten meters 

 in diameter, containing the big equatorial telescope, which has a 

 focal distance of seven meters, while the diameter of the objective 

 lens is 49 centimeters. The telescope has a large and costly outfit 

 of additional astronomical instruments, the most cons])icuous of 

 which are two large spectroscopes, one of the Topfer t^'pe, made in 

 Berlin, and the other made in London by Hilger. The latter has a 

 grating three inches long, and is one of the largest in the world. The 

 Topfer spectroscope is of the same size as the one made for the Ger- 

 man government at Potsdam. There are three other stone piers in 

 this department, which are to be occupied, respectively, by a comet- 

 seeker, a small photographic equatorial, and an equally small merid- 

 ian circle. There has also been in regular use since December, 1895, 

 a. reflecting zenith photographic telescope for the study of the varia- 

 tion of latitude, a novel instrument, of elegant construction, invented 



