History of the Kew Observatory. 



51 



on the Continent within the last twenty years, which are practically 

 unknown in this country, but which, if properly understood, verified, 

 and brought into use, would lead to valuable results. 



" At the present moment a most important and widely extended 

 series of simultaneous observations in different parts of the world is 

 being carried out, and to this object the British Government and East 

 India Company have munificently contributed. With the exception 

 of the magnetical instruments, none are at present employed for these 

 observations but those which have been long known and verified ; this 

 has arisen from want of proper knowledge of the means of construct- 

 ing, using, and interpreting the results of the new instruments. Did 

 we possess this knowledge, the harvest to be gained from the system 

 of combined observations, now in operation, might be more than 

 doubled, with scarcely any increase of expense. 



" 2. A repository and station for trial of new instruments, having 

 the same objects as the above in view, which may be proposed in this 

 country. Among instruments which have been proposed, and which 

 will probably not be constructed and brought into use without the 

 assistance which an Institution like this alone can afford, may be men- 

 tioned : a universal meteorograph, which will accurately record half- 

 hourly indications of various meteorological instruments, dispensing 

 entirely with the attendance of an observer ; an apparatus for record- 

 ing the direction and intensity of the wind simultaneously at various 

 heights above the earth's surface ; an apparatus for telegraphing the 

 indications of meteorological instruments carried up in balloons or by 

 kites, to an observer at the earth's surface. 



"3. As a station to which persons, willing to become coadjutors in 

 the system of consentaneous observations, may bring their instruments 

 for the purpose of comparison with the standard instruments there 

 deposited. Attention need not be called to the increased value of 

 observations made with instruments thus properly compared. 



" 4. As the depository of a complete set of the magnetic instru- 

 ments at present in use in the various magnetic observatories, in order 

 that any person desirous of so doing may understand their construc- 

 tion and acquire their use. The only magnetic observatory in England 

 is at Greenwich, and the instruments, being in constant use, cannot be 

 employed for the purposes here mentioned. 



"5. A complete series of apparatus for experiments on atmospheric 

 electricity. For such investigation the locality is peculiarly adapted. 

 !N othing of the kind at present exists in England, and yet there is no 

 subject in meteorological science for which so much remains to be done. 



" 6. One of the rooms to be fitted up as an optical chamber with a 

 Heliostat, Fraunhofer's prismatic telescope, photometers, &c, prin- 

 cipally for the purposes of optical astronomy, a subject at present 

 totally neglected. 



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