Of private history:  There was the usual visit to Playford in January:  also a short visit in May:  and a third visit at Christmas.—­There was a short run in June, of about a week, to Coniston, with one of his daughters.—­And there was a trip to Weymouth, &c., for about 10 days, with one of his daughters, in the beginning of August—­On his return from the last-mentioned trip, Airy found a letter from the Secretary of the Swedish Legation, enclosing the Warrant under the Royal Sign Manual of His Majesty (Oscar), the King of Sweden and Norway, by which he was nominated as a First Class Commander of the Order of the North Star, and accompanying the Decorations of that Order.

1874

“In this year Mr Glaisher resigned his appointment:  I placed his Department (Magnetical and Meteorological) under Mr Ellis.—­A balance of peculiar construction has been made by Mr Oertling, from my instructions, and fixed near the public barometer at the Entrance Gate.  This instrument enables the public to test any ordinary pound weight, shewing on a scale the number of grains by which it is too heavy or too light.—­Fresh counterpoises have been attached to the Great Equatoreal to balance the additional weight of the new Spectroscope, which was finally received from Mr Browning’s hands on May 2nd of the present year.  The Spectroscope is specifically adapted to sweeping round the Sun’s limb, with a view to mapping out the prominences, and is also available for work on Stars and Nebulae, the dispersive power being very readily varied.  An induction-coil, capable of giving a six-inch spark, has been made for this instrument by Mr Browning.—­Some new classes of reductions of the meteorological observations from 1848 to 1868 have been undertaken and completed in the past year.  The general state of this work is as follows:  The diurnal changes of the dry-bulb thermometer, as depending on the month, on the temperature waves, on the barometric waves, on the overcast and cloudless states of the sky, and on the direction of the wind, have been computed and examined for the whole period; and the exhibition of the results is ready for press.  The similar reductions for the wet-bulb thermometer are rapidly approaching completion.  —­Regarding the preparations for the Transit of Venus Expeditions.  Originally five stations were selected and fully equipped with equatoreals, transits, altazimuths, photoheliographs, and clocks; but I have since thought it desirable to supplement these by two branch stations in the Sandwich Islands and one in Kerguelen’s Island; and the additional instruments thus required have been borrowed from various sources, so that there is now an abundant supply of instrumental means....  There will thus be available for observation of the Transit of Venus 23 telescopes, nine of which will be provided with double-image-micrometers; and five photoheliographs; and for determination of local time, and latitude and longitude, there will be nine transits and six