| Description | Present at the meeting: the President in the chair; Mr Burrow; Mr Dyer; Dr Franklin; Mr Maskelyne; Dr Munckley; Dr Murdock; Dr Parsons; Dr Silvester; Earl Verney; J West Esq; Daniel Wray Esq; Dr Morton and Dr Maty, Secretaries
Minutes of last meeting read
Treasurer ordered to pay bills [listed] totalling £437-7-2d
The Astronomer Royal reported;
1. The Society's clock had been returned from Messrs Mason and Dixon, and was being sent to the Society's house
2. Report from the meeting of the Committee to consider observations of the transit of Venus, at which Captain Campbell, Dr Bevis, Mr Raper, The Astronomer Royal, Dr Murdock and Mr Ferguson had been present. Four papers were read, and after discussion it was resolved;
2.1 Observers to go to Fort Churchill in Hudson's Bay; to apply to Hudson's Bay Company for peremission, transport and assistance when there.
2.2 Two observers to go to Wardhus in the North Cape (informed now that Swedes or Danes to do this); need to apply to Admiralty for a ship
2.3 Two observers to places in the South Seas; to apply to Government for a ship - Islands of Mendoza or Rotterdam or Amsterdam would be appropriate, or any lying between them
2.4 Necessary instruments are one Quadrant, one Clock, two reflecting telescopes of two feet each (made by Mr Short at each place; a Micrometer fo Dollond's sort to be added to one of the Telescopes at each place. Also a Barometer and Thermometer at each place, and a dipping needle for the South Seas.
2.5 Candidates for observers are Mr Bradley, Messrs Mason and Dixon, Mr Dunn, Mr Green, Mr Dymond, Mr Dalrymple. Also a person to send to the South Seas' having a particular turn for Discoveries and being an able Navigator and well skilled in Observation.'
2.6 Proper to write to the Swedish Observers re observations at Tornea Kittis Waardhus and the North Cape; and to the East India Company regarding instructions for their settlements and their Servants who are qualified to make observations
2.7 Observers to be sent to Hudson's Bay must set out next spring and winter there, as the ships go out once a year only. Observers going to the South must go round Cape Horn about Christmass 1768 (not Straits of Magellan)
2.8 ' Particular reports relative to the transit, which had been communicated by the Committee, were delivered in from the Astronomer Royal, Dr Bevis, Mr Short, and Mr Ferguson; and ordered to be preserved carefully. '
Dr Dyer, Dr Munckley, and Dr Franklin were appointed by ballot as auditors of the Treasurr's accounts for last year. |