31 
Ordinary Meeting, November 18 th, 1879. 
J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.RS., &c., President, 
in the Chair. 
The President noticed the lamented death, since the last 
meeting, of Professor J ames Clark Maxwell, an event which, 
having occurred in the prime of his life and in the midst of 
his usefulness and his splendid researches, was felt most 
severely by the Society and the whole scientific world. 
E. W. Binney, V.P., F.B.S., said: On Tuesday, the 11th 
instant, at 5.80 p.m., my son informed me that he was 
walking in Trees Street, Cheetham Hill, and on looking 
towards the East he observed a very brilliant meteor in the 
S.E. It appeared to be considerably larger in size than the 
planet Jupiter, and gave out as much light as the half moon 
and travelled slowly to the N.N.E., where it disappeared. 
The colour of the meteor was white with a tinge of blue, 
and it left a track of the same tint. At its greatest eleva- 
tion it reached the altitude of the planet Mars, and it 
appeared less in size as it travelled northwards and 
disappeared in the N.N.E. The time he observed it from 
first to last was about eleven seconds. The sky at the time 
was partially clouded, and the meteor was only observed at 
intervals and not along its entire course. 
“Kecording Sunshine,” by David Winstanley, F.R.A.S. 
So far as I have seen there is in use at present but one 
form of apparatus which effects an automatic registration 
of the duration and the times of sunshine, and that is the 
instrument of Campbell, in which a sphere of glass is so 
disposed as to burn a piece of wood or paper by the concen- 
Proceedings — Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Vol. XIX. — No. 4. — Session 1879-80. 
