1866.] General Sabine — Note on Meteorological Correspondence, 37 



that the Kew Observatory possesses all the instruments required in a com- 

 plete system of continuous self-recording meteorological observation. These 

 are vs^ell known to the Directors of many meteorological observatories both 

 at home and abroad, who in several instances, after personal examination, 

 have applied for and obtained for their own establishments similar instru- 

 ments prepared under the Superintendent ot the Kew Observatory, Mr. 

 Balfour Stewart. Thus, Barographs on the Kew pattern have been sup- 

 plied to Oxford, St. Petersburgh, and Coimbra ; iVnemometers to St. Pe- 

 tersburgh, Odessa, Melbourne, Coimbra, Ascension, Madras, Agra, and 

 two meteorological stations established by Admiral FitzRoy ; Electro- 

 graphs to Lisbon and Coimbra. There would be no difficulty (as was stated 

 in the letter to the Board of Trade) in preparing instruments at Kew for 

 affiliated meteorological stations in Britain, and in arranging for their veri- 

 fication and comparison with the Kew standards, as well as in giving to those 

 in whose hands they may be placed such instructions as may ensure unifor- 

 mity of operation. Such functions constitute in fact part of the original 

 purposes of the Institution at Kew, and are in continual exercise both for 

 magnetism and for meteorology. 



It is not unreasonable to anticipate that the success of such a system of 

 continuous self-recording meteorological observation, exemplified over the 

 limited area of the British Islands, might occasion its wider extension, and 

 thus contribute to the virtual fulfilment of the desire expressed by Her 

 Majesty's Government in 1852 "for the adoption of a general and uniform 

 plan of making and recording meteorological observations.^' 



Postscript, March 23. — Since this "Note" was communicated to 

 the Royal Society, I have read with great satisfaction the opinion ex- 

 pressed in the following extract from the " Report of a Committee assem- 

 bled at the Board of Trade to consider certain questions relating to the 

 Meteorological Department of the Board," pages 52, 53 : — 



" There is no doubt that self-recording instruments are urgently needed 

 in the present state of meteorological science, and that they will soon in all 

 probabiUty be largely employed both in this country and abroad. Their 

 advantages are manifest. By reason of the continuity of their records, no 

 wave or variation of any description in any of the meteorological elements 

 can escape notice, and the course of that wave or variation can be tracked 

 with certainty from station to station, and its modification at the time of 

 reaching each station in succession can be accordingly observed. For the 

 same reason one difficulty, now seriously felt, in charting the weather, viz. 

 that which arises from observers in different places and countries adopting 

 different hours of observation, would wholly disappear; and a further 

 difficulty, viz. that which arises from observers being unpunctual to their 

 professed hours of observation, would disappear also. The unvarying 

 accuracy of the record is an advantage of still greater importance than 

 might be expected by those who have had no experience of the frequent 



