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 June 7th he attended at the Visitation of the Royal
Observatory.--In a letter written in April to Lt.-Col. Marindin, R.A.,
on the subject of wind pressure there occurs the following remark:
"When the heavy gusts come on, the wind is blowing in directions
changing rapidly, but limited in extent. My conclusion is that in
arches of small extent (as in the Tay Bridge) every thing must be
calculated for full pressure; but in arches of large extent (as in the
Forth Bridge) every thing may be calculated for small pressure. And
for a suspension bridge the pressure is far less dangerous than for a
stiff arch."--In January he had some correspondence with Professor
Tyndall on the Theory of the "White Rainbow," and stated that he
thoroughly agreed with Dr Young's explanation of this phaenomenon.
--The following is extracted from a letter on May 1st to
his old friend Otto Struve: "I received from you about 3 or 4 weeks
past a sign of your friendly remembrance, a copy of your paper on the
Annual Parallax of Aldebaran. It pleased me much. Especially I was
delighted with your noble retention of the one equation whose result
differed so sensibly from that of the other equations. It is quite
possible, even probable, that the mean result is improved by it. I
have known such instances. The first, which attracted much attention,
was Capt. Kater's attempt to establish a scale of longitude in England
by reciprocal observations of azimuth between Beachy Head and
Dunnose. The result was evidently erroneous. But Colonel Colby, on
examination of the original papers, found that some observations had
been omitted, as suspicious; and that when these were included the
mean agreed well with the scale of observation inferred from other
methods."--In a letter to the Rev. R.C.M. Rouse, acknowledging the
receipt of a geometrical book, there occurs the following paragraph:
"I do not value Euclid's Elements as a super-excellent book of
instruction--though some important points are better presented in it
than in any other book of geometrical instruction that I have
seen. But I value it as a book of strong and distinct reasoning, and
of orderly succession of reasonings. I do not think that there is any
book in the world which presents so distinctly the 'because......
therefore.......' And this is invaluable for the mental
education of youth."--In May he was in correspondence with Professor
Balfour Stewart regarding a projected movement in Terrestrial
Magnetism to be submitted to the British Association. Airy cordially
approved of this movement, and supported it to the best of his
ability, stating that in his opinion what was mainly wanted was the
collation of existing records.--In January and February he was much
pressed by Prof. Pritchard of Oxford to give his opinion as to the
incorrectness of statements made by Dr Kinns in his Lectures on the
Scientific Accuracy of the Bible. Airy refused absolutely to take part
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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