Autobiography of Sir George Biddell AiryAiry, George Biddell
Science
Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy
Airy, George Biddell
Airy, George Biddell, 1801-1892; Astronomers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Autobiographies; Royal Greenwich Observatory
"On Nov. 7th I proposed a change in the form of Estimates for the
Observatory. The original astronomical part was provided by the
Admiralty, and the new magnetical and meteorological part was provided
by the Treasury: and the whole Estimates and Accounts of the
Observatory never appeared in one public paper. I proposed that the
whole should be placed on the Navy Estimates, but the Admiralty
refused. I repeated this in subsequent years, with no success.
Meantime I always sent to the Admiralty a duplicate of my
Treasury Estimate with the proper Admiralty Estimate.--Stephenson's
Railway through the lower part of the Park, in tunnel about 850 feet
from the Observatory, was again brought forward. On Feb. 20th it was
put before me by the Government, and on March 9th I made experiments
at Kensal Green, specially on the effect of a tunnel: which I found to
be considerable in suppressing the tremors. On May 6th I made my
Report, generally favourable, supposing the railway to be in
tunnel. On May 13th I, with Mr Stephenson, had an interview at the
Admiralty with Lord Ellenborough and Sir George Cockburn. The Earl
appeared willing to relax in his scruples about allowing a railway
through the Park, when Sir George Cockburn made a most solemn protest
against it, on the ground of danger to an institution of such
importance as the Observatory. I have no doubt that this protest of
Sir George Cockburn's really determined the Government. On June 10th I
was informed that the Government refused their consent. After this the
South Eastern Railway Company adopted the line through Tranquil
Vale.--In consequence of the defective state of Paramatta Observatory
I had written to Sir Robert Peel on April 16th raising the question of
a General Superintending Board for Colonial Observatories: and on June
27th I saw Mr Gladstone at the Colonial Office to enquire about the
possibility of establishing local Boards. On June 29th a general plan
was settled, but it never came to anything.--Forty volumes of the
Observatory MSS. were bound--an important beginning.--Deep-sunk
thermometers were prepared by Prof. Forbes.--On June 22nd Sir Robert
Inglis procured an Order of the House of Commons for printing a paper
of Sir James South's, ostensibly on the effects of a railway passing
through Greenwich Park, but really attacking almost everything that I
did in the Observatory. I replied to this on July 21st by a letter in
the Athenaeum addressed to Sir Robert Inglis, in terms so strong and
so well supported that Sir James South was effectually silenced." The
following extract from a letter of Airy's to the Earl of Rosse, dated
Dec. 15th 1846, will shew how pronounced the quarrel between Airy and
South had become in consequence of the above-mentioned attack and
previous differences: "After the public exposure which his conduct in
the last summer compelled me to make, I certainly cannot meet him on
equal terms, and desire not to meet him at all." (Ed.).--"In the
Mag. and Met.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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