British Meteorological Society, 7 1 



pending from it, and so adjusted, that the single drop, which by the 

 capillary and syphon action passes from the thread, shall, at the 

 extreme thrust of the excentric rod, be deposited at the edge of the 

 speculum. The quantity may be nicely regulated by the use of a 

 smaller or larger thread ; and the water is secure from containing 

 any gritty particle, being filtered in its passage through the thread. 

 -' The machine is of an easy and cheap construction, and intended 

 to be worked by the foot acting on a treadle, or by any other con- 

 venient motive power : the same lever apparatus which is used for 

 counterpoising the polisher in finishing, being connected by a ver- 

 tical rigid bar with the ball and socket-joint of the tool, affords means 

 for adding any required amount of pressure in the rough grinding 

 process, and thus that tedious part of the operation is considerably 

 accelerated. It is also adapted for figuring lenses of large dimen- 

 sions, to which it would impart, as well as to specula, surfaces ap- 

 proaching nearly to those of parabolic, or other required geometric 

 curvatures, and with the addition of another mandril, or more, re- 

 ceiving rapid motion from the periphery of the fly-wheel, it has been 

 used with great convenience for grinding and polishing lenses of the 

 smallest dimensions." 



BRITISH METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



We have to notice the recent formation of a Society for the advance- 

 ment of Meteorological knowledge, " a branch of physical inquiry 

 which," as stated in the published Address, "requires the combined 

 efforts of numerous observers, steadily following a well- concerted 

 plan, employing the same class of instruments, and reducing their 

 results in the same form. 



"Amongst the objects of this Society will be the reduction of 

 observations and combination of results, as far as their funds will 

 allow ; nevertheless it is to be hoped that the emulation which will 

 naturally be excited amongst observers to supply observations pro- 

 ducing the best results, will also induce them to reduce their own 

 observations, as far as they may be able to do so. With the view 

 of stimulating observers to perform this work, this Society will 

 publish from time to time useful Tables to facilitate the reduction of 

 observations. 



'• The Council fully trust, that whilst the establishment of the 

 British Meteorological Society will be the means of diffusing through- 

 out this country a philosophical spirit of inquiry, and of inducing a 

 more general employment of trustworthy instruments, and the care- 

 fully noting and submitting for comparison the observations thus 

 made, it will also have a more extended influence. By facilitating 

 a comparison of the observations of its own members with those 

 made in other countries, meteorological phenomena will be better 

 traced, and thus effects more satisfactorily and surely referred to 

 their true causes. A remarkable instance of the want of connecting 

 observations has been so recently rendered obvious, that it may not 

 be without its use briefly to refer to it here. In the ' American 

 Traveller,' published at Boston on April 6, 1850, and recently re- 

 ceived in this country, is a paper by W. Cranch Bond, Esq., of Cam- 



