Abstract
“HAT is the chief end of an astronomer?” is not so stereotyped a question as the corresponding conundrum respecting the chief end of man. This question is, however, suggested by the following statements in the last annual report of the Astronomer Royal to the Board of Visitors:—“In the year ending 1910, May 10, the average daily number of chronometers and watches being rated (at Greenwich) was 596.” “The number of Government marine chronometers and watches now at the Observatory is 455.” “For the annual trial of chronometers... 66... were sent in... 8 were purchased for the Navy and 4 for the Indian Government.” “For the annual trial of chronometer watches... 173... were entered... and... 35 were purchased for the Navy.” In addition there was a trial of pocket chronometers, seventeen being sent in and two purchased for the Navy. The average number of chronometers rated daily has, we learn, more than trebled since 1880, so that the burden of this work borne by the Observatory has enormously increased. The work is doubtless most valuable for the Navy, but is our great national Observatory exactly the place where it should be done?
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Greenwich Watch and Chronometer Trials . Nature 84, 210 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/084210a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/084210a0