Abstract
THE Mersey Docks and Harbour Board have, by an Order dated November 29, 1894, modified the regulations under which they are prepared to issue certificates to those who deposit chronometers and other scientific apparatus at their Observatory for test and examination. Under the new regulations, instrument-makers can re-submit their apparatus within a twelvemonth of first deposit, without any additional fee. In the case of chronometer-makers this concession will probably be welcomed for the following reasons. Hitherto, the certificates granted have simply been regarded as a protection to the public, and the makers have had to apply their own tests to ensure accurate performance before submitting them to independent examination. But it will now be possible for makers to spare, in some degree, their own rigorous control, since the certificate granted will show the direction in which correction must be made, and a second certificate will be granted without fee to the improved instrument. If no alteration be needed, the time required for the additional trial is of course saved. Another modification, which will be appreciated by those who seek certificates for watches, is that affecting the condition under which these certificates are granted. The alteration will be best shown by an example. Suppose a watch to have a normal rate in the first position of trial of nine seconds a day, and under the various tests to which it is submitted the rate increase more than a second daily. Such a watch or chronometer, under the old regulations, would be refused an “A” certificate because the daily rate increased to more than ten seconds from mean time. But the watch might evidently be superior to one with a normal rate of two seconds, and which varied some five or six seconds in the various stages of its trial. The alteration in the regulations sanctioned by the Board will now permit the variations to be reckoned from the normal rate, and not from mean times.
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PLUMMER, W. Chronometer Trials. Nature 51, 153 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/051153b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051153b0
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