RAILWAY THROUGH GREENWICH PARK.—QUESTION. (Hansard, 23 March 1863)

§ THE DUKE OF SOMERSET

said, the Admiralty had written to the Board of Trade, forwarding a Report which had been received from the Astronomer Royal in reference to the Bill referred to by the noble Viscount. It was pointed out by the Astronomer Royal that the proposed course of the railway lay within 1,000 feet of the Observatory; that if its course passed above ground the concussion of the air thereby produced would be very injurious to any observations which might be taken; but that danger was, of course, much lessened by the fact that trains would pass through a tunnel at that point. At the distance of 1,000 feet he was not sure that it would do any harm at all. It was proposed that experiments should be made during the Easter recess near railroads already in existence, for the purpose of discovering what effect would be produced by the subterraneous passage of trains upon astronomical instruments placed within 1,000 feet; and having thus gained information with regard to the extent of the tremor of the earth, he should, if necessary, move an instruction to the Committee to whom the Bill would be referred after Easter. He should be sorry to interfere unnecessarily with a railway in which a large number of the inhabitants of Greenwich took a great interest; and, on the other hand, it was necessary to see that no damage resulted from works in connection with any private enterprise to an institution so valuable as Greenwich Observatory.