Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy (e reader for manga .TXT) 📕

himself occasionally with reading his favourite subjects of history and antiquities, and with looking over some of his early investigations of scientific questions.


1889

On June 5th he made a one-day's excursion to Colchester.--From July 2nd to 27th he was in the Cumberland Lake District, chiefly at Portinscale near Keswick. While staying at Portinscale he was seized with a sudden giddiness and fell upon the floor: he afterwards wrote a curious account of the visions which oppressed his brain immediately after the accident. He returned by Solihull, where his son Osmund was residing.--From Oct. 4th to Nov. 8th he was at Playford. While there he drew up a short statement of his general state of health, adverting particularly to the loss of strength in his legs and failure of his walking powers.--His health seems to have failed a good deal in this year: on Feb. 4th he had an accidental fall, and there are several entries in his Journal of mental attacks, pains in his limbs, affection of his eye-sight, &c.--In the early part of the year he was much engaged on the history of the Airy family, particularly on that of his father.--In this year the White House was sold by auction by its owners, and Airy purchased it on May 24th.--He was still in difficulties with his private accounts, but was making efforts to abandon his old and elaborate system.--For his amusement he was chiefly engaged on Theological Notes which he was compiling: and also on early optical investigations, &c.

On June 1st he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory, and moved a resolution that a Committee be appointed to consider whether any reduction can be effected in the amount of matter printed in the Volume of Observations of the Royal Observatory. During his tenure of office he had on various occasions brought this subject before the Board of Visitors, and with his usual tenacity of purpose he now as Visitor pressed it upon their notice.--In May he zealously joined with others in an application to get for Dr Huggins a pension on the Civil List.--In January he prepared a short Paper illustrated with diagrams to exhibit the Interference of Solar Light, as used by him in his Lectures at Cambridge in 1836: but it does not appear to have been published.--In April he received a copy of a Paper by Mr Rundell, referring to the complete adoption of his system of compass correction in iron ships, not only in the merchant service, but also in the Navy. This was a matter of peculiar gratification to Airy, who had always maintained that the method of Tables of Errors, which had been so persistently adhered to by the Admiralty, was a mistake, and that sooner or later they would find it necessary to adopt his method of mechanical correction. The passage referred to is as follows: "The name of Sir George Airy, the father of the mechanical compensation of the compass in iron vessels, having just been mentioned, it may not be inappropriate to remind you that the present year is the fiftieth since Sir George Airy presented to the Royal Society his celebrated paper on this subject with the account of his experiments on the 'Rainbow' and 'Ironsides.' Fifty years is a long period in one man's history, and Sir George Airy may well be proud in looking back over this period to see how complete has been the success of his compass investigation. His mode of compensation has been adopted by all the civilized world. Sir William Thomson, one of the latest and perhaps the most successful of modern compass adjusters, when he exhibited his apparatus in 1878 before a distinguished meeting in London, remarked that within the last ten years the application of Sir George Airy's method had become universal, not only in the merchant service, but in the navies of this and other countries, and added--The compass and the binnacles before you are designed to thoroughly carry out in practical navigation the Astronomer Royal's principles."


1890

From May 17th to 24th he was on an expedition to North Wales, stopping at Chester, Conway, Carnarvon, Barmouth, and Shrewsbury.--From June 18th to July 24th he was at Playford; and again from Oct. 11th to Nov. 15th.--In this year his powers greatly failed, and he complained frequently of mental attacks, weakness of limbs, lassitude, and failure of sleep. He occupied himself as usual with his books, papers, and accounts; and read Travels, Biblical History, &c., but nothing very persistently.

On June 7th he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory.--From a letter addressed to him by Mr J. Hartnup, of Liverpool Observatory, it appears that there had grown up in the mercantile world an impression that very accurate chronometers were not needed for steam ships, because they were rarely running many days out of sight of land: and Airy's opinion was requested on this matter. He replied as follows on Mar. 3rd: "The question proposed in your letter is purely a practical one. (1) If a ship is likely ever to be two days out of sight of land, I think that she ought to be furnished with two good chronometers, properly tested. (2) For the proper testing of the rates of the chronometers, a rating of the chronometers for three or four days in a meridional observatory is necessary. A longer testing is desirable."--In March he was in correspondence, as one of the Trustees of the Sheepshanks Fund, with the Master of Trinity relative to grants from the Fund for Cambridge Observatory.


1891

From June 16th to July 15th he was at Playford. And again from Oct. 12th to Dec. 2nd (his last visit). Throughout the year his weakness, both of brain power and muscular power, had been gradually increasing, and during this stay at Playford, on Nov. 11th, he fell down in his bed-room (probably from failure of nerve action) and was much prostrated by the shock. For several days he remained in a semi-unconscious condition, and although he rallied, yet he continued very weak, and it was not until Dec. 2nd that he could be removed to the White House. Up to the time of his fall he had been able to take frequent drives and even short walks in the neighbourhood that he was so fond of, but he could take but little exercise afterwards, and on or about Nov. 18th he made the following note: "The saddest expedition that I have ever made. We have not left home for several days."

The rapid failure of his powers during this year is well exemplified by his handwriting in his Journal entries, which, with occasional rallies, becomes broken and in places almost illegible. He makes frequent reference to his decline in strength and brain-power, and to his failing memory, but he continued his ordinary occupations, made frequent drives around Blackheath, and amused himself with his family history researches, arrangement of papers, and miscellaneous reading: and he persisted to the last with his private accounts. His interest in matters around him was still keen. On June 13th he was driving along the Greenwich Marshes in order to track the course of the great sewer; and on August 5th he visited the Crossness Sewage Works and took great interest in the details of the treatment of the sewage.--In March he contributed, with great satisfaction, to the Fund for the Portrait of his old friend Sir G.G. Stokes, with whom he had had so much scientific correspondence.--On July 25th an afternoon party was arranged to celebrate the 90th anniversary of his birthday (the actual anniversary was on July 27th). None of his early friends were there: he had survived them all. But invitations were sent to all his scientific and private friends who could be expected to come, and a large party assembled. The afternoon was very fine, and he sat in the garden and received his friends (many of whom had come from long distances) in good strength and spirits. It was a most successful gathering and was not without its meaning; for it was felt that, under the circumstances of his failing powers, it was in all probability a final leave-taking.--On July 27th he went down to the Greenwich Parish Church at 9 p.m., to be present at the illumination of the church clock face for the first time--a matter of local interest which had necessitated a good deal of time and money. On this occasion at the request of the company assembled in and around the Vestry he spoke for about a quarter of an hour on Time--the value of accurate time, the dissemination of Greenwich time throughout the country by time-signals from the Observatory, and the exhibition of it by time-balls, &c., &c.,--the subject to which so large a part of his life had been devoted. It was a pleasant and able speech and gave great satisfaction to the parishioners, amongst whom he had lived for so many years.--He received two illuminated addresses--one from the Astronomer Royal and Staff of the Royal Observatory; the other from the Vorstand of the Astronomische Gesellschaft at Berlin--and various private letters of congratulation. The address from the Staff of the Observatory was worded thus: "We, the present members of the Staff of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, beg to offer you our most sincere congratulations on the occasion of your 90th birthday. We cannot but feel how closely associated we are with you, in that our whole energies are directed to the maintenance and development of that practical astronomical work, of which you essentially laid the foundation. It affords us great pleasure to think that after the conclusion of your life's work, you have been spared to live so long under the shadow of the noble Observatory with which your name was identified for half a century, and with which it must ever remain associated."

After his return from Playford he seemed to rally a little: but he soon fell ill and was found to be suffering from hernia. This necessitated a surgical operation, which was successfully performed on Dec. 17th. This gave him effectual relief, and after recovering from the immediate effects of the operation, he lay for several days quietly and without active pain reciting the English poetry with which his memory was stored. But the shock was too great for his enfeebled condition, and he died peacefully in the presence of his six surviving children on Jan. 2nd, 1892. He was buried in Playford churchyard on Jan. 7th. The funeral procession was attended at Greenwich by the whole staff of the Royal Observatory, and by other friends, and at his burial there were present two former Fellows of the College to which he had been so deeply attached.