64 



Mr. R. H. Scott. 



During the period of the connection of the Observatory with the 

 British Association the expenses incurred in carrying out the various 

 experiments and researches as detailed in the foregoing pages were 

 considerable. These were met by grants from the Government 

 Grant Fund or the Donation Fund of the Royal Society, or from 

 private sources. 



During the last fourteen years, however, since the establishment 

 has been under the management of the Royal Society Committee, the 

 necessity for greater economy has been recognised, and the operations 

 have been carried on without assistance from the Funds above men- 

 tioned. The administration has, at the same time, been so satisfac- 

 torily conducted, and the receipts for the verification of instruments 

 have so largely increased, that the Committee have been enabled, 

 out of the surplus balances at their disposal annually, to provide 

 important and costly additions to the instrumental equipment of 

 the Observatory, such as the complete refitment of the magneto- 

 graphs, and the purchase successively of a Galton's Thermometer 

 testing apparatus — of a hydraulic press for deep sea thermometers 

 — of a new cathetometer — and lastly of the entire apparatus for 

 watch-rating. 



The only extraneous source of income for the Observatory, over and 

 above occasional small grants from the Meteorological Council for 

 special researches, has been the money so liberally supplied by Mr. de 

 la Rue for the completion of the measurement of the sun-pictures. 



The Committee has, however, to regret the gradual disappearance of 

 many familiar fac£s from the band of men who took prominent parts 

 in the management of the Observatory in former years. 



Of Superintendents, the death of Mr. "Welsh has already been 

 noticed, and his predecessor, Mr. Ronalds, after receiving the well- 

 merited honour of knighthood for his inventions in Telegraphy, died 

 in 1873 at the age of eighty-five years. 



Of the members of the British Association Committee, Col. W. H. 

 Sykes, almost its first Chairman, died in 1870 ; Sir C. Wheatstone, 

 whose name appears in the very first resolution of the British Associa- 

 tion relating to Kew, deceased in 1871 ; Mr. Gassiot, for eighteen 

 years the chairman of the British Association Kew Committee, and 

 the munificent patron of the Observatory in recent years, died in 

 1876 ; while Sir E. Sabine, who had been from first to last identified 

 with the magnetic operations at the Observatory, and might almost 

 be termed the guiding spirit of the undertaking, passed away in 1883, 

 having almost attained the patriarchal age of ninety-five years. 



The following are the most important facts which can be gathered 

 from the successive Reports of the Royal Society Committee : — 

 18 72. The Photoheliograph was regularly worked, as in former years, 



