it should be so fixed thmt, as far as could be, the heat should have an equal influence on all sides of it; and it is obvious that the Thermometer ought to have been kept in the same Box with it; but as this was not done, I apprehend the effects of heat mentioned above do not merit much attention; and therefore shall only observe that the Watch was placed in a Box with a Glass in the lid and another in one side, in the seat of a window level with the lowest pane of the window, and exposed to the South-East, whilst the Thermometer, which was to ascertain the degree of heat the Watch was exposed to, was placed in a shady part of the room: now it is obvious that while the Air surrounding the Thermometer might be very temperate, there might, if the Sun shone upon it, be a heat in the Box, superior to what was ever felt in the open air in any part of the world; and perhaps grater than any human being could subsist in, and consequently improper, or at least unnecessary for this experiment.[1]
- ↑ To any objection to this arrangement, which no logical adroitness could have made a case in favour of the Timekeeper, Dr. Maskelyne would have coldly answered—that the Commissioners (Lord Morton and the Lunars, to wit) had seen it, and had not ordered to the contrary.—A disposition of the Timekeeper and of the Thermometer so incongruous that it may be called fantastical, is remarkably opposed to that guardian solicitude which it may be said "hopeth all things, and endureth all things" in pusuit of its enlightened purpose, which was seen at Richmond, and might be summed up in the con-
