Report of the Kew Committee. 



347 



Witli a view of investigating the effect of locality upon the indi- 

 cations of the electrograph, a Thomson's portable electrometer has 

 been employed, with a burning-match collector to make occasional 

 observations around the exterior of the building. These observations 

 are at present suspended, on account of an accidental derangement of 

 the instrument which has necessitated its return for a time to the 

 hands of the maker. 



The curves have been tabulated up to the end of 1881, and a 

 report on the working of the instrument has been submitted to the 

 Meteorological Council. 



Mr. W. L. Dallas of the Meteorological Office, having recently been 

 appointed Scientific Assistant to the Meteorological Reporter of 

 India, received instructions in the use of meteorological instruments 

 prior to his departure to that country. 



III. Solae Observations. 



The only solar work done at Kew during the past year has been the 

 regular maintenance of the eye observations of the sun, after the 

 method of Hofrath Schwabe, as described in the Report for 1872, 

 in order to preserve the continuity of the Kew records of sun-spots. 

 These have been made on 197 days. The sun's surface was found to 

 be free from spots on three of those days. 



A small portable 2f inch refracting telescope, with a magnifying 

 power of 42 diameters, was used by the observer till July 3rd, since 

 that date the observations have been made by means of the Photo- 

 heliograph, which was removed from the Loan Collection at South 

 Kensington for that purpose, and reinstated on the pedestal in the 

 Dome, a position which it occupied prior to its being sent to the 

 Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in 1873. 



The spots are now drawn by the Observer, as they appear pro- 

 jected upon the focussing screen. 



The measurements and reductions of sun-spot positions, as deter- 

 mined by means of the Kew photoheliograph, from 1864 to 1872, 

 having been completed for Mr. De La Rue, he has deposited the 

 manuscript with the Council of the Royal Society. The correction 

 of area measurements, for foreshortening, still remains to be applied 

 to the reductions for the last two years, but this work is now being 

 rapidly pushed forward. 



Transit Observations. — One hundred and twelve observations have 

 been made of sun-transits, for the purpose of obtaining correct local 

 time at the Observatory ; 168 clock and chronometer comparisons 

 have also been made. 



Shelton's Clock, K.O., has been fitted up in the pendulum room, in 

 a convenient position for observing, and a hearing tube led to the side 

 of the transit instrument, so that its errors may be determined 



