History of the Kew Observatory. 



43 



The first Superintendent of the Observatory was Dr. Stephen 

 Charles Triboudet Demainbray, descended from parents who bad fled 

 to London from France on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 

 This gentleman, after a varied career as a lecturer on science in various 

 uniyersities and institutions in these islands and in France, had settled 

 in London as instructor in science to the King before his accession, 

 and subsequently to Queen Charlotte. One point in his career 

 shows the estimation in which he was held in France. I gather 

 from General Rigaud's paper, "In France (although not of the 

 religion of the country) he was received as an ' Associe Ordinaire ' 

 and member of the Royal Academy ; the only instance of a declared 

 Protestant not being placed on the list termed 'la Liste Etrangere.' " 



Fig-. 2. — The Kew Obseevatoby eeom the Sotjth-West. 



Latitude 51° 28' 6" N. 

 Longitude 0° 18' 47" W. 



When the new Observatory was finished, Dr. Demainbray adjusted 

 the instruments there in time to make the Transit observation, and 

 was its Superintendent until his death in 1782. 



George III frequently attended at the Observatory, and procured 

 the best clocks and watches that could be made and placed them 

 in the Observatory, so that by daily observations of the sun when 

 passing the meridian, the time was regulated, and for many years 

 the accurate time for the regulation of the clocks in both Houses of 

 Parliament, at the Horse Guards, St. James's, and elsewhere, was taken 

 from the King's Observatory, before the accommodation was so well 

 and publicly afforded as it is at present from the Royal Observatory 

 at Greenwich. The clock which was the principal timekeeper at the 



