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: Thomas Bell; the Reverend James Booth; Samuel Hunter Christie; Warren De La Rue; Thomas Henry Huxley; Henry Bence Jones; John Phillips; the Reverend Baden Powell; Colonel Edward Sabine; William Sharpey; Admiral William Henry Smyth; George Gabriel Stokes; William Tite; Charles Wheatstone; the President, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. The seal of the Royal Society was affixed to diplomas of the new Foreign Members. Letter from the Chairman of the Kew Committee requesting an advance of £150 for erecting photographic apparatus for registering the position of spots on the Sun's disc: the £50 donation from Benjamin Oliveira, and £100 from the Donation Fund allocated for the purpose, on the recommendation of Sir John Herschel. Letter from John Frederick William Herschel, 32 Harley Street, 24 pril 1854, to the Chairman of the Kew Committee, full text entered into the minutes: recommending the daily observation of sunspots, with notes on the methodology to be employed, including the use of collodion for photography. Resolved that the Secretary should contact Mr. Oliveria to communicate the disposal of his donation. Report from the Government Grant Committee, recommending that Officers should consider the best means of proceeding with the reports from awardees from the Government Grant and that the accounts should be audited: list of applications for awards from the Government Grant, with recommendations, confirmed by Council. Letter from Charles Richard Weld, 29 June 1854, to the Secretaries of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: reporting on the completion of the Newton collection bequeathed by the Reverend Charles Turnor; the collection is bound in six volumes, according to Turnor's wishes, and will be deposited in a cabinet which is being constructed for the purpose; with an account of expenses. Resolved that £150 from the balance of the sum received from Mr. Turnor's executors should be paid to Mr. Weld, and the collection was to be opened to Fellows on application to the President or Officers. Mr. Gunn applied for an extension to his admission to the Fellowship, granted. |