Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy (top 100 novels .TXT) 📕

to be informed of any remarkable enterprise of this Observatory, or of any principal step in the preparations for the Transit of Venus and of its results.

I have the honor to be
Sire,
Your Imperial Majesty's very faithful servant,
G.B. AIRY.

_To His Majesty
The Emperor of Brazil._

* * * * *

Airy's old friend, Adam Sedgwick, was now very aged and infirm, but his spirit was still vigorous, and he was warm-hearted as ever. The following letter from him (probably the last of their long correspondence) was written in this year, and appears characteristic:


TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
_May 10, 1872_.

MY DEAR AIRY,

I have received your card of invitation for the 1st of June, and with great joy should I count upon that day if I thought that I should be able to accept your invitation: but alas I have no hope of the kind, for that humiliating malady which now has fastened upon me for a full year and a half has not let go its hold, nor is it likely to do so. A man who is journeying in the 88th year of his pilgrimage is not likely to throw off such a chronic malady. Indeed were I well enough to come I am deaf as a post and half blind, and if I were with you I should only be able to play dummy. Several years have passed away since I was last at your Visitation and I had great joy in seeing Mrs Airy and some lady friends at the Observatory, but I could not then attend the dinner. At that Meeting were many faces that I knew, but strangely altered by the rude handling of old Time, and there were many new faces which I had never seen before at a Royal Society Meeting; but worse than all, all the old faces were away. In vain I looked round for Wollaston, Davy, Davies Gilbert, Barrow, Troughton, &c. &c.; and the merry companion Admiral Smyth was also away, so that my last visit had its sorrowful side. But why should I bother you with these old man's mopings.

I send an old man's blessing and an old man's love to all the members of your family; especially to Mrs Airy, the oldest and dearest of my lady friends.

I remain, my dear Airy,
Your true-hearted old friend,
his
ADAM X SEDGWICK.
mark

P.S. Shall I ever again gaze with wonder and delight from the great window of your Observatory.

The body of the above letter is in the handwriting of an amanuensis, but the signature and Postscript are in Sedgwick's handwriting. (Ed.)

* * * * *


1873

"Chronographic registration having been established at the Paris Observatory, Mr Hilgard, principal officer of the American Coast Survey, has made use of it for determining the longitude of Harvard from Greenwich, through Paris, Brest, and St Pierre. For this purpose Mr Hilgard's Transit Instrument was planted in the Magnetic Court. I understand that the result does not sensibly differ from that obtained by Mr Gould, through Valentia and Newfoundland.--It was known to the scientific world that several of the original thermometers, constructed by Mr Sheepshanks (in the course of his preparation of the National Standard of Length) by independent calibration of the bores, and independent determination of the freezing and boiling points on arbitrary graduations, were still preserved at the Royal Observatory. It was lately stated to me by M. Tresca, the principal officer of the International Metrical Commission, that, in the late unhappy war in Paris, the French original thermometers were destroyed; and M. Tresca requested that, if possible, some of the original thermometers made by Mr Sheepshanks might be appropriated to the use of the International Commission. I have therefore transferred to M. Tresca the three thermometers A.6, S.1, S.2, with the documentary information relating to them, which was found in Mr Sheepshanks's papers; retaining six thermometers of the same class in the Royal Observatory.--The Sidereal Standard Clock continues to give great satisfaction. I am considering (with the aid of Mr Buckney, of the firm of E. Dent and Co.) an arrangement for barometric correction, founded on the principle of action on the pendulum by means of a magnet which can be raised or lowered by the agency of a large barometer.--The Altazimuth has received some important alterations. An examination of the results of observations had made me dissatisfied with the bearings of the horizontal pivots in their Y's. Mr Simms, at my request, changed the bearings in Y's for bearing in segments of circles, a construction which has worked admirably well in the pivots of the Transit Circle." (And in various other respects the instrument appears to have received a thorough overhauling. Ed.)--"With the consent of the Royal Society and of the Kew Committee, the Kew Heliograph has been planted in the new dome looking over the South Ground. It is not yet finally adjusted.--Some magnetic observations in the Britannia and Conway tubular bridges were made last autumn. For this purpose I detached an Assistant (Mr Carpenter), who was aided by Capt. Tupman, R.M.A.; in other respects the enterprise was private and at private expense.--The rates of the first six chronometers (in the annual trials) are published, in a form which appears most likely to lead to examination of the causes that influence their merits or demerits. This report is extensively distributed to British and Foreign horologists and instrument-makers. All these artists appear to entertain the conviction that the careful comparisons made at this Observatory, and the orderly form of their publication, have contributed powerfully to the improvement of chronometers.--Very lately, application has been made to me, through the Board of Trade, for plans and other information regarding time-signal-balls, to assist in guiding the authorities of the German Empire in the establishment of time signals at various ports of that State. In other foreign countries the system is extending, and is referred to Greenwich as its origin.--The arrangements and preparations for the observation of the Transit of Venus occupied much attention. With regard to the photoheliographs it is proposed to make trial of a plan proposed by M. Janssen, for numerous photographs of Venus when very near to the Sun's limb. On Apr. 26th the engaging of photographic teachers was sanctioned. Observers were selected and engaged. A working model of the Transit was prepared, and the use of De La Rue's Scale was practised. There was some hostile criticism of the stations selected for the observation of the Transit, which necessitated a formal reply.--Reference is made to the increase of facilities for making magnetical and meteorological observations. The inevitable result of it is, that observations are produced in numbers so great that complete reduction becomes almost impossible. The labour of reduction is very great, and it is concluded that, of the enormous number of meteorological observations now made at numerous observatories, very few can ever possess the smallest utility.--Referring to my Numerical Lunar Theory: on June 30th, 1873, a theory was formed, nearly but not perfectly complete. Numerical development of powers of a/r and r/a. Factors of corrections to Delaunay first attempted, but entirely in numerical form."--In March of this year Airy was consulted by Mr W.H. Barlow, C.E., and Mr Thomas Bouch (the Engineer of the Tay Bridge, which was blown down in 1879, and of a proposed scheme for a Forth Bridge in 1873) on the subject of the wind pressure, &c., that should be allowed for in the construction of the bridge. Airy's report on this question is dated 1873, Apr. 9th: it was subsequently much referred to at the Official Enquiry into the causes of the failure of the Tay Bridge.--At the end of this year Airy resigned the Presidency of the Royal Society. In his Address to the Society on Dec. 1st he stated his reasons in full, as follows: "the severity of official duties, which seem to increase, while vigour to discharge them does not increase; and the distance of my residence.... Another cause is a difficulty of hearing, which unfits me for effective action as Chairman of Council."

Of private history: There was the usual visit to Playford in January: also a short visit in May: and a third visit at Christmas.--There was a short run in June, of about a week, to Coniston, with one of his daughters.--And there was a trip to Weymouth, &c., for about 10 days, with one of his daughters, in the beginning of August--On his return from the last-mentioned trip, Airy found a letter from the Secretary of the Swedish Legation, enclosing the Warrant under the Royal Sign Manual of His Majesty (Oscar), the King of Sweden and Norway, by which he was nominated as a First Class Commander of the Order of the North Star, and accompanying the Decorations of that Order.


1874

"In this year Mr Glaisher resigned his appointment: I placed his Department (Magnetical and Meteorological) under Mr Ellis.--A balance of peculiar construction has been made by Mr Oertling, from my instructions, and fixed near the public barometer at the Entrance Gate. This instrument enables the public to test any ordinary pound weight, shewing on a scale the number of grains by which it is too heavy or too light.--Fresh counterpoises have been attached to the Great Equatoreal to balance the additional weight of the new Spectroscope, which was finally received from Mr Browning's hands on May 2nd of the present year. The Spectroscope is specifically adapted to sweeping round the Sun's limb, with a view to mapping out the prominences, and is also available for work on Stars and Nebulae, the dispersive power being very readily varied. An induction-coil, capable of giving a six-inch spark, has been made for this instrument by Mr Browning.--Some new classes of reductions