COMPLETION OF THE NEW ROCK THERMOMETERS. 649 . 
were made are a set that were made in 1867, of very fine tubes, the callipering being almost 
perfect. The points were taken in 1877, when these thermometers were finished; the scales 
of them being of gun metal inlaid with a strip of platina, on which the dividing is done. 
There is also a strong bar of gun metal on the sides of the scales to prevent their bending, 
owing to the unequal expansion of the two metals. 
The final work of placing the thermometers in the hole was done on the 26th of June 
1879. They were removed that morning from the Royal Terrace house to the Royal 
Observatory, where the copper cases were placed on the bulbs, and filled with plaster of Paris. 
In the bottom of each copper case there is a layer of cork, varying in thickness from 3 inches 
downward, cupped to receive the bottom of each bulb; the points of the bulbs being about an 
inch from the bottom of each case. 
The placing of the 250 inch thermometer in the hole was done by having a cross spar at 
the top, having four pulleys, two of the pulleys being close to the tube, and the other two being 
12 inches apart, over which was carried on each side a cord, the one cord being attached to the 
top of the tube, and the other to the copper case. The cord was then passed one on each side 
of the two outside pulleys, and made of sufficient length to reach the ground, when the case 
with the thermometer was placed erect. There was then placed a 3 lb. weight on each side, 
the effect being that when the case with the thermometer was placed against the triangle, and 
the thermometer freed of its tyings, it passed down of its own weight. Fine fresh water sand, 
specially procured for this purpose from an excavation in the Easter Road, was filled in for the 
125 inch, which was passed down by hand, the others being done in the same way. On the 
following day the scales of platina were wired on, and the two wooden cases, or little houses 
for protection from the weather, fastened down with gun-metal bolts. 
THOMAS WEDDERBURN, 
Foreman of Adie & Son. 
PS. (1).—The following articles were taken from the hole :— 
The hard block with the sections of the tubes, the 3-feet bulb with its tin case, the 6-feet 
bulb with its tin case, the remains of the 12-feet bulb tin case, the portions of copper wire, a 
sample of the sand used in filling up the hole, a piece of the supposed thermal-pile wire perfect, 
taken from the transit-house pipe that was supposed to have been once in connection with the 
hole, and is within 3 feet of its mouth. Of this arrangement no records are known to exist; 
and from 1845, downwards, the piece of lead pipe with a short length of the copper wire 
wrapped in cere-cloth, to insulate them, and struck through the east wall of old-transit house, had 
been considered the relics of some experiments once carried on by Professor J. D. ForBEs, but 
not described, or subsequently cared for, by him. TS We 
P.S. (2).—The attachment of the big bulb to its long tube was done in the usual way by 
sealing up the tube at one end, and blowing a small oval bulb, and cutting away the half of 
it, the same being done with the stem of the big bulb, and then the two half bulbs on the 
tubes and stem being melted together by a Bunsen flame. se ' 
ING: “EV: 
The Cyclical Seasons predicted in 1872. 
Extracts from pp. R 105, R 106 of the XI1Ith Vol. of the Edinburgh Astronomical Obser- 
vations, published in the beginning of 1872, (Subsequent additions in parenthesis, thus). 
“ How intimately the well-being of the poor generally, as well as of the agricultural classes 
