330 



Report of the Kew Committee, 



Thermometers, clinical 32 



„ ordinary meteorological 13 



Sextants * 83 



Telescopes 90 



Various 21 



3 Standard Thermometers have been supplied during the year. 



There were at the end of the year in the Observatory undergoing 

 verification, 12 Barometers, 202 Thermometers, 8 Hydrometers, 13 

 Sextants, 21 Telescopes, and 1 Anemometer. 



At the request of Captain Tyler, R.E., Inspecting Officer of the 

 R.E. Division, Royal Dockyard, Woolwich, a batch of 72 telescopes 

 for the use of the officers of the field artillery has been examined. 



VI. Rating of Watches. 



1044 watches have been sent for examination during the year, as 

 contrasted with 709 during the fourteen months comprised in last 

 report. They were entered for the following classes : — 



For class A, 414 ; class B, 403 ; class C, 221 ; and 6 for the subsi- 

 diary trial. Of these 192 failed from various causes to gain any 

 certificate ; 214 were awarded class C certificates, 377 class B, and 

 256 class A ; of the latter, 22 obtained the highest form of certificate, 

 class A, especially good ; and 5 of the 6 passed the second test. 



In the Appendix will be found statements giving the results of trial 

 of the 22 watches which gained the highest number of marks during 

 the year. The first place was taken by Messrs. Baume and Co., 

 London, with a keyless, going-barrel, chronometer- watch, No. 103,018, 

 with the " tourbillon" escapement, which obtained the high total of 

 91*9 marks out of a maximum of 100 ; this is the highest value yet 

 awarded. 



The best performance of lever watches during the year was that of 

 No. 13,400 by Fridlander, Coventry, which gained 86 marks. 



There has been a marked increase in the number of watches sent 

 for the B and C trials, and the use of these tests for lower- graded 

 movements appears, judging by the demand, to be steadily growing 

 in favour. 



Non-Magnetic Watches. — Several watches thus designated have been 

 examined during the year, both as to their ordinary time-keeping 

 and also to their non-magnetic properties. The trial is rigorous, the 

 movement being tested in an intense magnetic field, both in vertical 

 and horizontal positions, and gradually approached to and removed 

 from the coil, whilst its behaviour is critically watched, and its 

 subsequent daily rate noted. Should any alterations of its normal 

 performance occur, the watch receives no certificate. 



