Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/247

 1880-1920] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 215 of the photographs in the possession of the Society was obviously impossible for financial reasons, but early in 1893 arrangements were made with Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode to copy such photo- graphs and to sell copies at a fair price. Two years later it was decided to try as an experiment to let the Society act as a centre for receiving photographs intended for reproduction and distri- buting the prints, without being interested financially in the undertaking. This arrangement has been in force ever since and has been successfully managed by the Assistant Secretary, both prints (platinotype or aristotype) and slides being obtainable. Lists of the photographs in stock (or additions to such) are published annually in the Council Report. The collection had in 1920 February reached a total of 298 numbers, which looks as if "a long-felt want " had been filled by this arrangement. At the same time the pages of the Monthly Notices bear witness to the readiness of the Council to illustrate papers by a liberal application of photography whenever desirable. A good many of the photographs issued are of total eclipses, and in their production the Society has had an active share. Though a vast number of eclipse results had been published by the Society, it had not taken a great part in the organisation of the ex- peditions. In 1887 the Council were invited by Professor Bredichin to send two observers to his summer residence near Kineshma, on the Volga, to observe the eclipse on August 19. The hospitable offer was accepted by Copeland and Perry on the nomination of the Council, but unfortunately bad weather prevented any results being obtained. In 1888 March, when the annual re-appointment of Committees by the Council took place, it was decided to appoint an Eclipse Committee. The Council of the Royal Society were duly notified of this, and the hope was expressed that as most of the members of the new Committee were already members of the Committee of the Royal Society, the work of the two bodies would be much facilitated. In the following year preparations were made by the R.A.S. Committee for observing the eclipse of 1889 December 21-22, and this eclipse, so far as British expeditions were con- cerned, was altogether managed by our Society.* An expedition under Father Perry was sent to Isles du Salut, near Cayenne ; though very ill he managed to carry out his programme successfully, but died only five days later. Another expedition to Cape Ledo, in South Africa, failed altogether owing to bad weather. Early in 1892, in reply to a letter from the Eclipse Committee, the Council of the Royal Society very cordially approved of the suggestion to form a Joint Solar Eclipse Committee. This was Foreign Office and the Admiralty, etc., see M.N., 50, 2.
 * For full details about the preparations, the facilities granted by the