216 



X. 



SUPPLY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. 



The supply of accurate instruments constructed on the most 

 recently approved principles by skilled mechanicians has largely 

 conduced to the precision of modern surveys. In 1862 the Secretary 

 of State perceiving that the supply and examination of instruments 

 for use in India were requirements likely to increase rather than 

 the reverse, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel A. Strange, F.R.S., to 

 supervise and test all scientific instruments destined for India. 

 Colonel Strange was an officer possessing high qualifications for the 

 post ; he had had considerable practical experience in trigono- 

 metrical surveying, while his mechanical genius and knowledge of 

 mathematical, geodetical, and astronomical instruments were not 

 surpassed by any man in England. A special observatory* and 

 office were erected at the India Store Depot in Belvedere Road, 

 Lambeth, and since then the examination of instruments has steaddy 

 proceeded; the number of kinds of instruments annually dealt with 

 being now close on 200, or about twice as many as in 1871. The 

 effect has been to bring about a vast improvement in the quality of 

 the appliances. In the early part of 1876 Colouel Strange died, and 

 in June of the same year the Secretary of State appointed 

 Mr. Thomas Cushing, F.R.A.S., to succeed him as Inspector of 

 Scientific Instruments. Mr. Cushing had also had much practical 

 training and experience in his earlier career as a scientific 

 mechanician, besides having been for nine years assistant to Colonel 

 Strange. During the last three years the number of instruments 

 examined by him has averaged about 10,000 per annum (valued at 

 30,000^.) as against 7,000 in 1871.f Among them may be specially 

 mentioned a six-inch equatoreal telescope, a large reflecting telescope 

 and an observatory dome for the Poona College of Science, as well as 

 costly physical apparatus of a varied kind for the use of colleges in 

 India, amounting in value to 1.714/. For the Survey Department 

 only instruments of the highest order are sent out, long experience 

 having shown this is most economical in the end. 



* A description of the observatory will be found at page 201 of the " Memoir on 

 the Indian Surveys" (2nd ed.). 



j Appendix I. shows the character, number, and value of the scientific instruments 

 examined at the Lambeth Observatory during the three years ended 1890. 



