| Description | Present at the meeting of the Committee for ascertaining the length of the Seconds Pendulum: The President in the Chair; Mr Barrow; Mr H Browne; Mr Combe; Sir H C Englefield; MrGilbert; Capatain Kater; Mr Pond; Mr Troughton; Dr Wollaston; Dr Young
Minutes of last Committee read.
' Resolved that two small pocket Theodolites, one for each Expedition be added to the former List of Instruments.
That two springs for measuring the force of Gravity be substituted for the two Manometers
That eight reflecting Compasses be furnished instead of four.
That one of Bouguer's Logs be struck out of the List.
That the four portable Barometers be on Sir H C Eglefields principle.
That the number of Spirit and Mercurial Thermometers be forty, that is, twenty of each.
That two Thermometers for ascertaining the temperature of the Sea at different depths be substituted for Six's self-registering Thermometers.
That the Astrolabes be struck out of the List.
That the MAcrometers in Dr Wollasdton's plan be added to the List.
The Committee having conversed with Captain Edward Sabine and satisfied themselves that his qualifications were equal to the business of an Observer, Resolved to recommended his to the Council for appointment.
The following Memoir communicated by Mr Pond was read to the Committee, and ordered to be entered on the Minutes;
"Mr Pond informed the Committee that he had erected a very perfect apparatus at the Royal Observatory for the purpose of measuring the length of the Pendulum on the principle of the late Mr Borda and expected soon to be able to submit the results of his Experiments to the Committee.
He conceived that in several pooints of view these might become highly interesting.
Should the same result be obtained as by the pendulum of Captain Kater the merits of which had been so deservedly appreciated by the Committee it would strengthen in a great degree the reliance that might be placed on each method, should on the contrary a decidedly different result ensue the examinationin to the cauase of this difference might throw some light on the theoretical principles of each of them.
The importance of such a series of Observations with a view to investigate the comparative force of gravity on differnt parts of the Meridian by combining the result with that already obtained with nearly the same apparatus by the french Academicians Mr Pond conceived to be equally obvious, but as this latter part of the investigtion is rather connected with the business of the Royal Observatory than with the precise object of the Committee, Mr Pond did not wish to take up the time of the Committee by entering into further details.
From these considerations Mr Pond was naturally led to call the attention of the Committee to the consideration of the advantage that might be derived from instituting similar experiments in different parts of the Globe, and which seemed the more necessary from the circumstance of the French Government having directed the Members of their Academy to commence a similar operation. "
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