40 



Report of the Kew Committee. 



Report of the Kew Committee for the Fifteen Months 

 ending October 31, 1872. 



The Kew Observatory was handed over to the President and Council of 

 the Royal Society by the General Committee of the British Association 

 at the Edinburgh Meeting in 1871. Since that time the operations of 

 the establishment have been conducted under the directions of the Com- 

 mittee nominated by the President and Council of the Royal Society. 



The most important modifications which have been made in the staff 

 of the Observatory have been : — first, the appointment of Mr. Samuel 

 Jeffery as Superintendent, in the place of Dr, Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., 

 who had resigned his office previous to the severance of the connexion 

 between the Observatory and the British Association; and, secondly, 

 the resignation of Mr. Robert Beckley, who had been for nearly eighteen 

 years Mechanician, such an official being no longer required. His con- 

 nexion with the Observatory is not, however, entirely at an end, for he 

 has been appointed Consulting Mechanician with a retaining fee of Ten 

 Pounds per annum. 



Mr. Bobert H. Scott, F.R.S., has consented, at the request of the 

 Committee, to act as their Honorary Secretary. 



Magnetic Work. — The series of automatic records of the several Mag- 

 netographs, viz. Declinometer, Horizontal Force, and Vertical Force instru- 

 ments, have been continued, and the independent absolute determinations 

 have been, as usual, made monthly. This latter duty has been, as hereto- 

 fore, performed by Mr. Gr. M. Whipple, B.Sc, first Assistant, who also 

 takes charge of the General Magnetic "Work, in which he has the assist- 

 ance of Mr. Cullum. The salaries of these two gentlemen, whose time 

 is chiefly devoted to magnetic work, amounted during the period under 

 consideration to =£308 2s. 6cl., leaving a balance of about .£300 out of the 

 sum of .£600 received from the Royal Society to meet the general 

 expenses (.£2084 12s. 9d.) of the Observatory. <£767 18s. 5d. of this 

 amount has been defrayed by the Meteorological Office and other 

 sources, such as the .£300 received for the payment of arrears from the 



