I must, however, confess that, in viewing the capricious forms of the photographic curves, my mind is entirely bewildered, and I sometimes doubt the possibility of extracting from them anything whatever which can be considered trustworthy.’—­Great progress had been made with the distribution of time.  ’The same Normal Clock maintains in sympathetic movement the large clock at the entrance gate, two other clocks in the Observatory, and a clock at the London Bridge Terminus of the South-Eastern Railway....  It sends galvanic signals every day along all the principal railways diverging from London.  It drops the Greenwich Ball, and the Ball on the Offices of the Electric Telegraph Company in the Strand;...  All these various effects are produced without sensible error of time; and I cannot but feel a satisfaction in thinking that the Royal Observatory is thus quietly contributing to the punctuality of business through a large portion of this busy country.  I have the satisfaction of stating to the Visitors that the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have decided on the erection of a Time-Signal Ball at Deal, for the use of the shipping in the Downs, to be dropped every day by a galvanic current from the Royal Observatory.  The construction of the apparatus is entrusted to me.  Probably there is no roadstead in the world in which the knowledge of true time is so important.’—­The Report includes an account of the determination of the Longitude of Cambridge Observatory by means of galvanic signals, which appear to have been perfectly successful.—­Under the head of General Remarks the following passage appears:  ’The system of combining the labour of unattached computers with that of attached Assistants tends materially to strengthen our powers in everything relating to computation.  We find also, among the young persons who are engaged merely to serve as computers, a most laudable ambition to distinguish themselves as observers; and thus we are always prepared to undertake any observations which may be required, although necessarily by an expenditure of strength which would usually be employed on some other work.’—­Considerable work was undertaken in preparing a new set of maps of our buildings and grounds.—­On Apr. 23rd there was a small fire in the magnetic observatory, which did little mischief.—­In December I wrote my description of the Transit Circle.—­Lieut.  Stratford, the Editor of the Nautical Almanac, died, and there was some competition for the office.  I was willing to take it at a low rate, for the addition to my salary:  Mr Main—­and I think Mr Glaisher—­were desirous of exchanging to it:  Prof.  Adams was anxious for it.  The Admiralty made the excellent choice of Mr Hind.—­In October Faraday and I, at Lothbury, witnessed some remarkable experiments by Mr Latimer Clark on a galvanic current carried four times to and from Manchester by subterranean wires (more than 2000 miles) shewing the retardation of visible currents (at their maximum