OBSERVATORY. 
Hiffory of 
has been ftudied or improved, b 
but little information on the fubject. t was not, in- 
deed, until confiderable progrefs had iad made both in 
aftronom he mechanical arts, that any attempts 
fucceeded either in ha roe aaa or erecting 
n 
wood, and 
aftronomy, ni loft ty t 
vations, which was 
cubit. hn 1 thickne fs. 
-) 
aay required an accurate ae ‘of the on and ting 
' t owever, certain, that practical aftronomy 
much improved in Egypt, particularly in the famous 
ichool of Alexandria, where an obfervatory was built 300 
years before the Chriftian era, ro continued for more than 
five centuries ander a fucceffion of celebrated aa 
among a may be ere “Aritielivs, Hipparchus 
Meffrs. H 
ene dwel 
Il give an saad tof cbferva 
from the firn@ure eerie en 
may be formed vf their antecedent shabhthwents of 
ie kind, as they differ, in almoft every particular, from 
European obfervatories. 
Thefe Hindu inftitutions, -five in number, weve peg ae 
nearly at the fame period, abont 200 years ago. They 
ewere built by arder of the emperor Mahommed Shah, with 
or Jean | the a of eng 
t Delhi, Benares, Matra, a 
he 
a. aring, and fitting of the 
everal par = in he 3 ncairy and soscigs fupports to the 
very lar ones that compofe and in joining and 
of the eat of the archite& in their conftruction ; for by 
mon thrown on the qu 
and art with which this vie ia been teu: This 
performance is the more extraordinary when compared with 
the works of the artificers of Hindooftan at this Basle who 
are not under the immediate direction o 
arg arts appear to havé declined equally with {cience 
e ea 
a “Liat, ae Arch. Campbell, at that time chief engineer 
in a company’s uae at Bengal, a gentleman 
made a 
tive drawin the w 
iii a brafs pin is xed at the centre 
or soni of the quadrant, from which the Bramin informed 
me they ftretched a wire to the circumference when 
fervation was to be made; from which it occurred to m 
the obferver muft have moved his eye up or down the cir- 
cumference, by means of a ladder or fome fuch contrivance, 
to raife and lower himfelf, till he had difcovered the = 
