A galvanometer manufactured by William Reid and Co. The date of this object is unknown, however it was probably constructed before 1856 when William’s sons took over his business at 25 University-Street and renamed it Reid Brothers. Reid, dubbed a ‘veteran electrical engineer’ by the Illustrated London News in 1853, exhibited several telegraphic instruments at the Great Exhibition of 1851, including several ornate telegraphs for Hotels, and pieces of submarine cable used on the channel cable. Reid was involved in the laying of the first Submarine Telegraph between Dover and Calais 1850. Using his own telegraphs, he was one of the engineers to send some of the first submarine signals. The date at which the galvanometer entered the Observatory and its purpose here are unknown, but it is likely that it was at one time used in the computing room to register the return time signals from Deal or Westminster during the 1850s and 1860s.