1863
In this year there were several schemes for a Railway through the
lower part of Greenwich Park, the most important being the scheme of
the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company. In reference to this
scheme the Report to the Visitors states "I may say briefly that I
believe that it would be possible to render such a railway innocuous
to the Observatory; it would however be under restrictions which might
be felt annoying to the authorities of the Railway, but whose
relaxation would almost ensure ruin to the Observatory."--"The
meridional observations of Mars in the Autumn of 1862 have been
compared with those made at the Observatory of Williamstown, near
Melbourne, Australia, and they give for mean solar parallax the value
8.932", exceeding the received value by about 1/24th part. (A value
nearly identical with this 8.93" has also been found by comparing the
Pulkowa and Cape of Good Hope Observations.)"--"The results of the new
Dip-Instrument in 1861 and 1862 appear to give a firm foundation for
speculations on the state and change of the dip. As a general result,
I may state as probable that the value of dip in the middle of 1843
was about 69 deg.
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