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 Jan. 28th, 1825, I started for Edensor, where I paid a visit, and
returned on Feb. 2nd. On Feb. 4th I wrote to Mr Clarkson, asking his
advice about a profession or mode of life (the cares of life were now
beginning to press me heavily, and continued to do so for several
years). He replied very kindly, but his answer amounted to nothing.
About the same time I had some conversation of the same kind with Mr
Peacock, which was equally fruitless.
"On Feb. 4th I have investigations of the density of light near a
caustic (on the theory of emissions). On Feb. 5th I finished a Paper
about the defect in my eye, which was communicated to the Cambridge
Philosophical Society on Feb. 21st. Mr Peacock or Mr Whewell had some
time previously applied to me to write a Paper on Trigonometry for the
Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, and I had been collecting some materials
(especially in regard to its history) at every visit to London, where
I read sometimes at the British Museum: also in the Cambridge
libraries. I began this Paper (roughly) on Feb. 8th, and finished it
on Mar. 3rd. The history of which I speak, by some odd management of
the Editors of the Encyclopaedia, was never published. The MS. is now
amongst the MSS. of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Other subjects
on my quires are: Theory of musical concords, many things relating to
trigonometry and trigonometrical tables, achromatic eye-pieces,
equation to the surface bounding the rays that enter my left eye,
experiments on percussion. Also notes on Cumberland and Wales (I had
already proposed to myself to take a party of pupils in the Long
Vacation to Keswick), and notes on history and geology.
"I had been in correspondence with Dr Malkin (master of Bury School),
who on Feb. 8th sent a certificate for my brother William, whom I
entered at Trinity on Peacock's side. On Mar. 25th I changed my rooms,
quitting those on the ground-floor east side of Queen Mary's Gate for
first-floor rooms in Neville's Court, south side, the easternmost
rooms. In this term my lectures lasted from Apr. 18th to May
14th. Apparently I had only the Senior Sophs, 19 in number, and the
same four pupils (Turner, Dobbs, Cooper, Hovenden) as in the preceding
term. The only scientific subjects on which I find notes are, a Paper
on the forms of the Teeth of Wheels, communicated to the Philosophical
Society on May 2nd; some notes about Musical Concords, and some
examination of a strange piece of Iceland Spar. On Apr. 29th I was
elected to the Northern Institution (of Inverness); the first
compliment that I received from an extraneous body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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