SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



309 



in acquiring the general temperature of the atmosphere; 

 and conceived this might be owing to their being placed in 

 a yard of rather too confined dimensions. 1 therefore placed 

 other thermometers, by way of comparison, at the height of 

 17 feet from the ground, in a situation where they were 

 equally protected from reflected heat, but were of course 

 in a less confined part of the atmosphere. My conjecture 

 was in some degree verified ; for, on a careful examination 

 for several weeks, I have found the thermometers above ap- 

 parently a little more sensible of change; though still the 

 difference between them has never been great. 



Accordingly 1 have since registered from the thermo- Thermometers 

 meters in this situation ; and I am inclined to think, that " ow P lace(1 

 few can be found superior to it in the advantage of not being b 

 affected by any reflected or adventitious heat or cold. From 

 what I have observed it is probable, as I noticed at the 

 time, that my statement of the heat in July 1808 was a 

 little below the truth: but if the difficulty of finding a 

 situation totally unaffected by reflected or communicated 

 heat be considered, I am persuaded that much greater 

 errours in excess were made by other observers, than mine 

 in defect. 



I am, Sir, 



Your humble servant, 



R. BANCKS. 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



T 



Proceedings of the French National Institute. 

 HE Class of Mathematical and Physical Sciences has French 



Nati- 

 proposed the following prize question. onal Institute. 



The first inquiries concerning sound date very high in an- Investigation 

 tiquity. The proportions of the length of strings produc- ° s ° un ' 

 ing different notes are ascribed to Pythagoras: but this 

 branch of science made no remarkable progress before the 

 end of the seventeenth century. Sauveur, a member of the Sauveur. 

 French Academy of Sciences, showed by very ingenious 

 experiments, that the sounding string was divided into seve- 

 ral 



