Page:Reflections on the decline of science in England - Babbage - 1830.pdf/130

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108
FUNDS OF THE SOCIETY.

are still losers of three hundred and sixty pounds on this transaction.

On the conversion of the Greenwich Observations into Pasteboard.—Although the printing of these observations is not paid for out of the funds of the Royal Society, yet as the Council of that body are the visitors of the Royal Observatory, it may not be misplaced to introduce the subject here.

Some years since, a member of the Royal Society accidentally learned, that there was, at an old store-shop in Thames Street, a large quantity of the volumes of the Greenwich Observations on sale as waste paper. On making inquiry, he ascertained that there were two tons and a half to be disposed of, and that an equal quantity had already been sold, for the purpose of converting it into pasteboard. The vender said he could get fourpence a pound for the whole, and that it made capital Bristol board. The fact was mentioned by a member of the Council of the Royal Society, and they thought it necessary to inquire into the circumstances.

Now, the Observations made at the Royal Observatory are printed with every regard to typographical luxury, with large margins, on