Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Instruments, Meteorology, Gas Chemistry, Amusement, Light, Theory

Institutions mentioned:

Royal Observatory, Greenwich

    Reports that the unaccountable spell of wet weather forced James South to improve his telescope and John F W Herschel to embark on a long and fruitless analysis of a nebula. Notes South's joy at learning of the opening of Vauxhall Gardens and summarises South's explanation of the link between the wet weather and the opening of the gardens. The explanation involves the vaporisation by gas lamps and fireworks of Thames water in the trees in Vauxhall Gardens. Believes South and Herschel are supporters of 'the Vauxhall nebulous theory'.