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
"In October of this year I wrote to the Admiralty that I had grounds
for asking for an increase of my salary: because the pension which had
been settled on my wife, and which I had practically recognized as
part of my salary, had been terminated by her death; so that my salary
now stood lower by _£200_ than that of the Director of Studies of the
Royal Naval College. The Admiralty reply favourably, and on Nov. 27th
the Treasury raise my salary to _£1_,200.--For the service of the
Clock Movement of the Great Equatoreal, a water-cistern has been
established in the highest part of the Ball-Turret, the necessity for
which arose from the following circumstance: The Water Clock was
supplied by a small pipe, about 80 feet in length, connected with the
3-inch Observatory main (which passes through the Park), at a distance
of about 250 feet from any other branch pipe. In spite of this
distance I have seen that, on stopping the water-tap in the
Battery-Basement under the North-East Turret, the pressure in the
gauge of the Water Clock has been instantly increased by more than 40
lbs. per square inch. The consequent derangement of the Water Clock in
its now incessant daily use became intolerable. Since the independent
supply was provided, its performance has been most satisfactory.--With
the Spectroscope the solar prominences have been mapped on 28 days
only; but the weather of the past winter was exceptionally
unfavourable for this class of observation. After mapping the
prominences, as seen on the C line, the other lines, especially F and
b, have been regularly examined, whenever practicable. Great care has
been taken in determining the position, angle, and heights of the
prominences in all cases. The spectrum of Coggia's Comet was examined
at every available opportunity last July, and compared directly with
that of carbon dioxide, the bands of the two spectra being sensibly
coincident. Fifty-four measures of the displacement of lines in the
spectra of 10 stars, as compared with the corresponding lines in the
spectra of terrestrial elements (chiefly hydrogen), have been made,
but some of these appear to be affected by a constant error depending
on faulty adjustment of the Spectroscope.--Photographs of the Sun have
been taken with the Kew Photoheliograph on 186 days; and of these 377
have been selected for preservation. The Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and
several stars (including the Pleiades and some double stars) have been
photographed with the Great Equatoreal, with fairly satisfactory
results, though further practice is required in this class of work.--I
would mention a supplemental mechanism which I have myself introduced
into some chronometers. I have long remarked that, in ordinary good
chronometers, the freedom from irregularities depending on mechanical
causes is most remarkable; but that, after all the efforts of the most
judicious makers, there is in nearly every case a perceptible defect
of thermal compensation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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