One of the most recent and important improvements in astronomical observation is designed to obviate this difficulty; and we owe it to America, which is now beginning to make valuable contributions to science as well as literature. The principle of the contrivance in question, consists in the substitution of the sense of touch for the sense of hearing. It is found, that sight and touch will act in much closer concert than sight and hearing. Instead, then, of watching the clock with the ear, and the star with the eye, the observer, when he notes the transit with the eye, presses a key with his linger, which makes a record of the observation. The finger, it is found, acts in instantaneous concert with the eye. The key acts upon a pen, which makes a mark on a sheet of paper moved by machinery. The beauty of the contrivance lies much in the application of electricity, which is now made to do duty in every possible way, from the ringing of a bell in the servants' hall, to the exploding of a mine under a fortress. The pen is connected with the clock by an electric band, in such a manner that, though the observer be absolutely deaf, he can, on examining the sheet of paper after the observation, tell, to the hundredth part of a second, the instant when the star passed the wire. The sheet of paper need not be close to the observer. It may be at Paris, or St Petersburg, or wherever there is electric communication; and the moment the observer presses the key
