Report of the Kew Committee. 



merit. For a complete account of these experiments, see Manchester 

 Philosophical Society's Proceedings," vol. xvii, No. 10. 



Freezing Point of Water. — In consequence of a communication from 

 Dr. Guthrie as to the presence of cryohydrates in water lowering its 

 freezing point, a series of experiments was made for determining the 

 melting point of distilled-water ice, rainwater ice, clean pond ice, and 

 the commercial ice used at the Observatory. It was found to be 

 practically identical in all the specimens examined, the differences 

 observed only amounting to a few hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit. 



Waxed Paper, SfC, supplied. — Waxed paper has been supplied to the 

 following Observatories : — 



Bombay; Montsouris. 

 Brussels. Radclift'e. 

 Coimbra. Zi-Ka-Wei. 



A supply of chemical and photographic material has also been pro- 

 cured for the Coimbra Observatory. 



A set of lamps, for use with Magnetographs, has been supplied to 

 the Mauritius Observatory. 



Loan Exhibition. — The old instruments (with the exception of a 

 Magnet, the property of the Hoyal Observatory, Greenwich, and a 

 Unifilar Magnetometer) lent to the Science and Art Department, 

 enumerated in the Report for 1876, remain for the present deposited 

 in the galleries at South Kensington. 



A Dip-circle, the property of Mr. Dover, has been withdrawn from 

 the collection. 



Workshop. — The several pieces of Mechanical Apparatus, such as the 

 Whitworth Lathe and the Planing Machine, procured by Grants from 

 either the Government Grant Fund or the Donation Fund, for the use 

 of the Kew Observatory, have been kept in thorough order, and many 

 of them are in constant, and others in occasional use at the Obser- 

 vatory, but the funds of the Committee do not at present allow of the 

 employment of a mechanical assistant, although one is much needed. 



Library. — During the year the Library has received, as presents, the 

 publications xsf 



11 English Scientific Societies and Institutions, 



43 Foreign and Colonial Scientific Societies and Institutions. 



Ventilation Experiments. — The Sanitary Institute of Great Britain 

 having applied to the Committee for permission to use the experi- 

 mental house (which was unoccupied at the time) for a series of 

 experiments on the ventilating powers of cowls of different form, the 

 Committee granted it, and a large number of observations were 

 made by them, extending over several weeks. A second set, with 

 other appliances, is now about to be instituted. 



