| Description | Printed minutes containing matters laid before Council, the Royal Society's governing body of Fellows, with records of decisions taken.
Commencing with a list of Council members present: Francis Baily; Dr. Martin Barry; Robert Brown; Samuel Hunter Christie; Reverend James Cumming; John Frederic Daniell; John Thomas Graves; Dr. Robert Lee; Sir John William Lubbock; William Hasledine Pepys; George Rennie; Peter Mark Roget; Charles Wheatstone; the President, Spencer Joshua Alwyn Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. Thomas Graves made and subscribed to the declaration in lieu of the oath. Letter from George Biddell Airy, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, to Samuel Hunter Christie, Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: on the former Commission on weights and measures of which Airy was a member, one recommendation of which was the collection of standard objects for comparison, including the Royal Society's; he asks that the Scale no.46 and Troy Pound no.48 be placed in his care, for defining new legal standards, noting that he has received the Royal Astronomical Society's Scale; agreed on condition that the objects are placed in a fire-proof room and only touched by those engaged in setting the new standards. Letter from George Peacock, No. 2 Duke Street, Adelphi, 13 January 1843, to Council of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: Francis Baily's report to the British Association on the cost of reducing and printing Lalande's star catalogue, and Sir John Herschel's report on the catalogue Lacaille's Southern stars, both to be the subject of application for Government support, Peacock requesting that the Royal Society concur in this course of action; referred by Council to the Committee of Astronomy. List of bills to be paid for printing and binding of Philosophical Transactions. Sir John Herschel applied for 50 copies of his latest paper for Philosophical Transactions, granted. |