"--The printing and publication of the Observations,
which was always regarded by Airy as a matter of the first importance,
had fallen into arrear: "I stated in my last Report that the printing
of the Observations for 1852 was scarcely commenced at the time of the
last meeting of the Visitors. For a long time the printing went on so
slowly that I almost despaired of ever again seeing the Observations
in a creditable state. After a most harassing correspondence, the
printers were at length persuaded to move more actively, ... but the
volume is still very much behind its usual time of publication."--"The
Deal Time-Ball has now been erected by Messrs Maudslays and Field, and
is an admirable specimen of the workmanship of those celebrated
engineers. The galvanic connection with the Royal Observatory (through
the telegraph wires of the South Eastern Railway) is perfect. The
automatic changes of wire-communications are so arranged that, when
the Ball at Deal has dropped to its lowest point, it sends a message
to Greenwich to acquaint me, not with the time of the beginning of its
fall (which cannot be in error) but with the fact that it has really
fallen. The Ball has several times been dropped experimentally with
perfect success; and some small official and subsidiary arrangements
alone are wanting for bringing it into constant use.
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