10 Report of the Kew Observatory Committee. 



Kew certificate was a very doubtful advantage to any watch, remain- 

 ing unsold for several years in a retailer's hands. The Committee 

 could not see their way to alter the invariable practice of dating 

 Kew certificates, but they agreed, in order to minimise the source 

 of complaint, that a watch tested at the Observatory not less than 

 three years previously, should be admitted to a fresh trial at half the 

 usual fee. , 



Marine Chronometers. — During the year, 70 chronometers have been 

 entered for the Kew A and B trials ; of these 33 gained certificates, 

 21 failed, and there are 16 in hand. 



The new cold-air chamber, to which a preliminary reference was 

 made in last year's Report, has been completed, and has proved 

 very convenient. 



It consists of three separate divisions, each isolated from the 

 others, and separated by a 3-inch space packed with flake charcoal, 

 this same packing being continued on all sides of the divisions, the 

 size over all being ft. by 6^ ft. by 3 ft. 



The centre chamber, 3 ft. by o ft. by 2 ft., is fitted with sliding 

 racks for the chronometers, and the division on either side is for the 

 ice. This is supplied in blocks, which rest on boards, and drain 

 away into a trap and gulley. The chronometer chamber is furnished 

 with trays to hold potassic chloride for drying purposes, and with 

 maximum and minimum thermometers. 



The doors are packed with flake charcoal, and are so arranged that 

 the ice stores can be filled or emptied without any disturbance of the 

 chronometer chamber. 



VII. Miscellaneous. 



Paper. — Prepared photographic paper has been supplied to the 

 Observatories at Hong Kong, Mauritius, Oxford (Radcliffe), and 

 Stonyhurst, and through the Meteorological Office to Aberdeen, 

 Fort William, and Valencia. 



Anemograph and Sunshine Sheets have also been sent to Hong Kong 

 and Mauritius. 



Gas Thermometer. — Sir Andrew Noble, K.C.B., having generously 

 offered to present a gas thermometer to the Observatory, and to 

 defray the cost of sending an assistant to Berlin to study the method 

 of using a similar instrument at the Reich sanstalt, at Charlotten- 

 burg, the Committee gladly accepted the gift. The construction of 

 the instrument has not yet been completed. 



Pendulum Observations. — In July Mr. F. Laurin and another officer 

 of the Royal Austrian Navy swung half second pendulums in the 

 sextant room on the spot where observations were made some years 

 ago by von Sterneck. 



