Alibag Magnetic Observatory
N. A. F. Moos · Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity · 1912
Early in 1900 the city of Bombay finally decided to employ electricity as motive power for its street tram service. Magnetic work, hence, which had run uninterruptedly for over fifty years by then at the Bombay Observatory, was thus threatened by the proposed introduction of the. electric traction, and prompt action in the interests of the Observatory seemed essentially urgent. Efforts to find some modus vivendi which might allow this work to be continued at the Observatory without serious vitiation from the disturbing effects of the lines, having proved abortive, no alternative seemed possible but to remove the magnetic work to some suitable site in the neighborhood. It became imperative under the circumstances to make provision without delay for the establishment of the new Observatory at some protected site elsewhere, which might allow comparative observations for a fairly long period to be made at the old and new sites before the conversion of the ordinary tram‐lines into electric traction was completed, and enable, if possible, the continuity of the Bombay record to be preserved.