MISCELLANEA 
CHRONOMETERS AND ELECTRICAL CLOCKS* 
HE reason why the exertions of men of science are not always fully 
appreciated by the world at large is because the fruits of their labours 
do not in every case become immediately manifest. It often happens 
that a whole lifetime is spent in patient toil before the attainment of any 
considerable results, and even when these are published in the form of some 
new discovery, or the perfecting of some wonderful invention, the author is 
too often overlooked by the excitement-seeking crowd. 
Thanks, however, to the advancing intelligence of the day, this is not 
likely to be the case much longer, and even now the worker in science is 
becoming better understood and appreciated, and is beginning to be highly re- 
spected by those who have no pretensions to more than every-day information. 
Men are beginning to find that Science really has some direct and imme- 
diate connexion with their pockets and with their palates. Here, one misses 
a bargain because he has allowed the time-ball to drop before he was at his 
appointed post ; there, another loses his train or his packet because he had 
neglected to set his watch by Greenwich tune. And so men are reminded 
by their very business, and by their domestic habits, that whilst Science is 
willing to be impressed into their service for gain, she visits with absolute 
punishment those who neglect her advantages or underrate her importance. 
When the trader finds that he has missed his bargain, his train, or Iris boat 
in consequence of the precision with which matters are conducted under the 
regime of Science, he ceases to despise Electricity and Astronomy, and may 
even go so far as to inquire into their practical application, and to promote 
it by contributing a mite from his well-filled purse to some useful or fashion- 
able scientific association. 
Such inquiries, too, lead him to discover the fact that more important 
issues are dependent upon the researches of men of science than his little 
bargains, his pleasures, or his disappointments. He finds that the fate of 
hundreds of human beings (including, perhaps, that of some dear friend or 
relative) may be sacrificed at sea in consequence of the want of scientific 
knowledge on the part of him to whose care their lives are entrusted. He 
hears that some careless mariner has failed to correct his timepiece, and that 
a sacrifice of life has been the consequence ; but had he taken up the report 
Avhich now lies before us, he would have known that “ an error of two minutes 
* Report of the Astronomer to the Marine Committee, Mersey Docks 
and Harbour Board. 
