scholarly journals I. Monthly means of the highest and lowest diurnal tem­peratures of the water of the Thames, and comparison with the corresponding temperatures of the air at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich

1883 ◽  
Vol 34 (220-223) ◽  
pp. 275-284
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
The Self ◽  
Partial Reduction ◽  
Medical Department ◽  
Registrar General ◽  
Sanitary Condition ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hospital Ships ◽  
Made In

In presenting to the Royal Society a partial reduction of the thermometrical observations made in the water of the Thames during a period of thirty-five years, I commence with a brief history of the undertaking and progress of this work. The observations were instituted at the suggestion of the con­ductors of the Medical Department in the Office of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, with the view of supplying some knowledge of an element which may possibly affect the sanitary condition of the Metropolis. The plan of observations was arranged at the Royal Observatory of Greenwich; and the instruments were procured and mounted, and repaired, when necessary, under the care successively of James Glaisher, Esq., and William Ellis, Esq., Superintendents of the Magnetical and Meteorological Department of the Observatory. The self-recording instruments were attached to the Hospital Ships successively anchored in the Thames, nearly opposite to Greenwich: and their records were read and registered by the medical officers of those ships, and these written registers were transmitted every week to the Royal Observatory. And I cannot too strongly express my sense of the care with which the observations were made, the fidelity with which they were recorded, and the order and regularity with which they were transmitted to the Royal Observatory. The weekly register, when received at the Observatory, was combined with the brief record of other meteorological facts observed at the Royal Observatory, and (with the medical record) was published every week by the Registrar-General.

XXIII. On the water-barometer erected in the hall of the Royal Society

1832 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 539-574 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Metallic Tube ◽  
French Academy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Made In

I have for some time entertained an opinion, in common with some others who have turned their attention tot he subject, that a good series of observations with a Water-Barometer, accurately constructed, might throw some light upon several important points of physical science: amongst others, upon the tides of the atmosphere; the horary oscillations of the counterpoising column; the ascending and descending rate of its greater oscillations; and the tension of vapour at different atmospheric temperatures. I have sought in vain in various scientific works, and in the Transactions of Philosophical Societies, for the record of any such observations, or for a description of an instrument calculated to afford the required information with anything approaching to precision. In the first volume of the History of the French Academy of Sciences, a cursory reference is made, in the following words, to some experiments of M. Mariotte upon the subject, of which no particulars appear to have been preserved. “Le même M. Mariotte fit aussi à l’observatoire des experiences sur le baromètre ordinaire à mercure comparé au baromètre à eau. Dans l’un le mercure s’eléva à 28 polices, et dans Fautre l’eau fut a 31 pieds Cequi donne le rapport du mercure à l’eau de 13½ à 1.” Histoire de I'Acadérmie, tom. i. p. 234. It also appears that Otto Guricke constructed a philosophical toy for the amusement of himself and friends, upon the principle of the water-barometer; but the column of water probably in this, as in all the other instances which I have met with, was raised by the imperfect rarefaction of the air in the tube above it, or by filling with water a metallic tube, of sufficient length, cemented to a glass one at its upper extremity, and fitted with a stop-cock at each end; so that when full the upper one might be closed and the lower opened, when the water would fall till it afforded an equipoise to the pressure of the atmo­sphere. The imperfections of such an instrument, it is quite clear, would render it totally unfit for the delicate investigations required in the present state of science; as, to render the observations of any value, it is absolutely necessary that the water should be thoroughly purged of air, by boiling, and its insinuation or reabsorption effectually guarded against. I was convinced that the only chance of securing these two necessary ends, was to form the whole length of tube of one piece of glass, and to boil the water in it, as is done with mercury in the common barometer. The practical difficulties which opposed themselves to such a construction long appeared to me insurmount­able; but I at length contrived a plan for the purpose, which, having been honoured with the approval of the late Meteorological Committee of this Society, was ordered to be carried into execution by the President and Council.

scholarly journals I. Note on an extension of the comparison of magnetic disturbances with magnetic effects inferred from observed terrestrial galvanic currents; and discussion of the magnetic effects inferred from galvanic currents on days of tranquil magnetism

1870 ◽  
Vol 18 (114-122) ◽  
pp. 183-185
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Force ◽  
The Self ◽  
Instrumental Error ◽  
Magnetic Disturbance ◽  
Magnetic Effects ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
Moderate Disturbance ◽  
Magnetic Disturbances ◽  
Made In

The author, after referring to his paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1868 on the comparison of Magnetic Disturbances inferred from Galvanic Currents recorded by the Self-registering Galvanometers of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich with the Magnetic Disturbances registered by the Magnetometers, on 17 days, states that he had now undertaken the examination of the whole of the Galvanic Currents recorded during the establishment of the Croydon and Dartford wires (from 1865 April 1 to 1867 October 24). The days of observation were divided into three groups,—No. I containing days of considerable magnetic disturbance, and therein including not only the 17 days above mentioned, but also 36 additional days, No. 2 containing days of moderate disturbance, of which no further use was made, and No. 3 containing the days of tranquil magnetism. The comparisons of the additional 36 disturbed days were made in the same manner as those of the preceding 17 days, and the inferences were the same. The results were shown in the same manner, by comparison of curves, which were exhibited to the Society. The points most worthy of notice are, that the general agreement of the strong irregularities, Galvanic and Magnetic, is very close, that the galvanic irregularities usually precede the magnetic, in time, and that the northerly magnetic force appears to be increased. The author remarks that no records appeared open to doubt as regards instrumental error, except those of western declination; and to remove this he had compared the Greenwich Curves with the Kew Curves, and had found them absolutely identical.

scholarly journals XIII. Results deduced from the measures of terrestrial magnetic force in the horizontal plane, at the Royal Observatoy, Greenwich, from 1841 to 1876

1885 ◽  
Vol 176 ◽  
pp. 679-689
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Horizontal Plane ◽  
Magnetic Force ◽  
Proper Part ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
Sliding Windows ◽  
Short Statement ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
Real Progress ◽  
Made In

In offering to the Royal Society some results deduced from the systems of magnetic observation and magnetic self-registration established several years since at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, during a portion of the time in which I presided over that institution, I think it desirable to premise a short statement on the origin of the Magnetic Department of the Royal Observatory, and on the successive steps in its constitution. It appears to have been recognised many years ago, that magnetic determinations would form a proper part of the business of the Royal Observatory. When I commenced residence at the Royal Observatory, at the end of 1835, I found in the garden a small wooden building, evidently intended for the examination of compasses, perhaps of the size of those used in the Royal Navy. But the locality was inconvenient, and the structure was totally unfit for any delicate magnetic purpose; for instance, the balance-weights of the sliding windows were of iron. For some preliminary experiments a small observatory was borrowed from Captain Fitzroy, but no real progress was made in magnetism.

Comparison of magnetic disturbances recorded by the self-registering magnetometers at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, with magnetic disturbances deduced from the corresponding terrestrial galvanic currents recorded by the self-registering galvanometers of the Royal Observatory

1868 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 249-251
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Plane Mirror ◽  
Clock Time ◽  
Water Pipes ◽  
Charles V ◽  
Railway Company ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Magnetic Disturbances

The author, after adverting to the origin of this branch of science, as commencing (with himself) in communications with Messrs. Edwin and Latimer Clark, but more particularly with Mr. Charles V. Walker, and alluding to the important labours of Mr. W. H. Barlow, Mr. Walker, and Dr. Lamont, proceeds to give the official history of the establishment of the wires and other apparatus necessary for its prosecution at the Royal Observatory. In 1860 and 1861, the author submitted to the Board of Visitors of the Royal Observatory proposals for extending wires from the Royal Observatory in two directions nearly at right angles,—on the second occasion, specifying Croydon and Dartford as terminal points. The Board in 1861 recommended this to the Admiralty, who immediately gave their sanction. The author then applied to the Directors of the South- Eastern Railway for permission to place his wires on their poles, which was granted, at a merely nominal rent. All the wires and labour in mounting them were provided by the Railway Company at cost price, and the insulators were furnished by Messrs. Silver without profit. The wires communicate with the earth at both ends of each by solder-attachment to water-pipes. The author then describes the apparatus made by Mr. Simms for the record of the currents. For each wire the current acts on a galvanometer whose needle-carrier also supports a small plane mirror; and, by proper adjustment of cylindrical lenses, neat spots of light are formed upon a rotating ebonite cylinder, covered with photographic paper and made to revolve (by clockwork) in twenty-four hours. With angular motion of the galvanometer, the spot of light moves. The zero of measure is obtained by interrupting the wire-circuit. The zero of time is obtained by interrupting the light and observing the corresponding clock-time. Other adjustments have received great attention.

scholarly journals IX. Experiments to determine the difference in the number of vibrations made by an invariable pendulum in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and in the house in London in which Captain Kater’s experiments were made

1829 ◽  
Vol 119 ◽  
pp. 83-102 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Knife Edge ◽  
Capillary Action ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Made In

These experiments were made in compliance with a wish of the Council of the Royal Society, expressed in the following minute, dated December 13th 1827: “That Captain Sabine be requested to ascertain the difference in the number of vibrations of a pendulum between Mr. Browne’s house in London and the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.” The invariable pendulum employed to accomplish the proposed object was of the usual materials and form, new for the occasion, and numbered 12. The thermometer was the same that I had used in my former pendulum experi­ments; its graduation is described in the volume containing the account of those experiments, pages 182—187. The ball of the thermometer was sus­pended at both stations midway between the knife edge and the centre of the weight of the pendulum. The height of the barometer in the observations at Greenwich was taken by the standard barometer of the Observatory, which is in a room on the same floor as the pendulum room: in those at London it was taken by Mr. Browne’s barometer placed in the room in which the observa­tions were made. Mr. Browne’s barometer being compared with the standard of the Greenwich observatory, by means of an intermediate portable barometer, was found to require a correction of + 0.066 to make it agree with the indications of the Greenwich standard corrected for capillary action. This correction is consequently applied.

scholarly journals II.—Gastaldi on Italian Geology and the Crystalline Rocks

1887 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 531-540
Author(s):  
T. Sterry Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Crystalline Rocks ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Late Professor ◽  
Especial Reference ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Made In

The present writer in 1883 reviewed the history of the rocks of the Alps and the Apennines with especial reference to the geological relations of serpentine and its associates, in a paper which appeared in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, and is reprinted, revised and with some additions, as the tenth chapter of his volume entitled “Mineral Physiology and Physiography” (Boston, 1886). Therein he gave a somewhat detailed account of the labours in Italian geology of the late Professor Bartolomeo Gastaldi, of Turin, a list of whose publications on that subject from 1871 to 1878, so far as known to the writer, will there be found, including his letter to Quintino Sella, in 1878, on the general results of explorations made in 1877 (loc. cit., 458).

XXIX. On the tides of Bombay and Kurrachee

1868 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 685-696 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Diurnal Tide ◽  
Semidiurnal Tide ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Engineering Survey ◽  
Continuous Curves ◽  
Made In

The tides on the coasts of India present a marked difference from those on our own coasts in the large amount of diurnal inequality to which they are subject. My attention was first directed to the subject in the course of an engineering survey of the Harbour of Kurrachee which I made in 1857-58, when I obtained between three and four months’ continuous observations, a copy of which is deposited with the Royal Society. Subsequently I obtained from the Admiralty, through the kindness of Captain Burdwood, R. N., the loan of the records of three years’ observations taken at Bombay in 1846, 1847, and 1848. Of these I plotted in a series of continuous curves the records for 1846, and deposited them, at the Astronomer Royal’s request, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. These records, however, are not perfect. They were made by a self-acting machine, the adjustment of which does not appear to have been always accurately pre­served; and I hope that they will be superseded as data for investigation by a better record 'for the year 1868. Taking them as they were, however, I discussed them to obtain the semimonthly curves of semidiurnal tide, and also formulæ for the approxi­mate determination of diurnal tide.

scholarly journals XI. Note on an extension of the comparison of magnetic disturbances with magnetic effects inferred from observed terrestrial galvanic currents; and discussion of the magnetic effects inferred from galvanic currents on days of tranquil magnetism

1870 ◽  
Vol 160 ◽  
pp. 215-226 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Principal Part ◽  
The Self ◽  
Magnetic Disturbance ◽  
Magnetic Effects ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
Magnetic Disturbances

In a communication to the Royal Society, which was honoured by publication in the Philosophical Transactions for 1868, I described the methods and gave the results of comparing the Magnetic Disturbances which might be expected as consequent on the Terrestrial Galvanic Currents recorded by the self-registering galvanometers of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, with the Magnetic Disturbances actually registered by the self-registering magnetometers. The comparison was limited to seventeen days (1865, October 5 and 31; 1866, October 4; 1867, April 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, May 4, 14, 28, 31, June 1, 2, 7, 24), various days having been omitted in consequence of a doubt on the uniformity of the clock-movement of the registering-barrel, which afterwards proved to be unfounded. The results of the comparison were exhibited in curves, engraved copies of which are given in the volume of publication. I expressed my opinion that it was impossible to doubt the general causal connexion of the Galvanic Currents with the Magnetic Disturbances, but that some points yet remained to be cleared up. As soon as circumstances permitted, I undertook the examination of the whole of the Earth-currents recorded during the establishment of the Croydon and Dartford Wires (namely from 1865 April 1 to 1867 December 31), as far as they should appear to bear upon this and similar questions. For this purpose the days of observation were divided by Mr. Glaisher into three groups. Group No. 1 contained days of considerable mag­netic disturbance (or days of considerable galvanic disturbance, which are always the same), including, besides the seventeen days above-mentioned, the thirty-six days of the following list :—1865, April 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, May 14, 17, July 7,15, August 14,19, 26, September 8, 16, 28, October 4, 6, 10, 12, 14, November 1; 1866, August 11, 23, September 8, 9,12,13,17,18, 25, October 6, 7,10, 30, November 26 ; 1867, February 8; making in all fifty-three days of considerable magnetic disturbance. Group No. 2 consisted of days of moderate magnetic disturbance, and of these no further notice was taken. Group No. 3 contained the days of tranquil magnetism, and the discussion of these will form the principal part of the present Memoir.

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