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
letters of more genuine feeling and satisfaction, or more eloquently
expressed, than these.
The narrative of the Autobiography will now be resumed.
"I had been disappointed two years before of an expedition to
Derbyshire. I had wished still to make it, and my brother wished to
go: and we determined to make it this year (1824). We were prepared
with walking dresses and knapsacks. I had well considered every detail
of our route, and was well provided with letters of introduction,
including one to the Rev. R. Smith of Edensor. On June 29th we started
by coach to Newmarket and walked through the Fens by Ramsay to
Peterborough. Then by Stamford and Ketton quarries to Leicester and
Derby. Here we were recognized by a Mr Calvert, who had seen me take
my degree, and he invited us to breakfast, and employed himself in
shewing us several manufactories, &c. to which we had been denied
access when presenting ourselves unsupported. We then went to Belper
with an introduction from Mr Calvert to Jedediah Strutt: saw the great
cotton mills, and in the evening walked to Matlock. Up to this time
the country of greatest interest was the region of the fens about
Ramsay (a most remarkable district), but now began beauty of scenery.
On July 9th we walked by Rowsley and Haddon Hall over the hills to
Edensor, where we stayed till the 12th with Mr Smith. We next visited
Hathersage, Castleton, and Marple (where I wished to see the canal
aqueduct), and went by coach to Manchester, and afterwards to
Liverpool. Here Dr Traill recommended us to see the Pontycyssylte
Aqueduct, and we went by Chester and Wrexham to Rhuabon, saw the
magnificent work, and proceeded to Llangollen. Thence by Chester and
Northwich (where we descended a salt-mine) to Macclesfield. Then to
the Ecton mine (of which we saw but little) through Dovedale to
Ashbourn, and by coach to Derby. On July 24th to Birmingham, where we
found Mr Guest, lodged in his house, and were joined by my pupil
Guest. Here we were fully employed in visiting the manufactures, and
then went into the iron country, where I descended a pit in the
Staffordshire Main. Thence by coach to Cambridge, where I stopped to
prepare for the Fellowship Examination.
"I had two pupils in this portion of the Long Vacation, Turner and
Dobbs. On August 2nd my writing of Latin began regularly as before. My
principal mathematics on the quires are Optics. On August 25th I made
experiments on my left eye, with good measures, and on Aug. 26th
ordered a cylindrical lens of Peters, a silversmith in the town, which
I believe was never made. Subsequently, while at Playford, I ordered
cylindrical lenses of an artist named Fuller, living at Ipswich, and
these were completed in November, 1824.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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