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
"I have the attendance-bills of my Lectures to Senior Sophs (16) from
Feb. 3rd to Feb. 23rd, and to Freshmen (40) from Feb. 27th to
Mar. 15. It would appear that I gave but one college-lecture per day
(my belief was that I always had two). The tutor's stipend per term
was _£50_. On my quires I find, Investigations for the ellipticity of
a heterogeneous spheroid when the density is expressed by sin
_qc_/_qc_ (the remarkable properties of which I believe I discovered
entirely myself, although they had been discovered by other persons),
Theoretical Numbers for precession, nutation, &c., some investigations
using Laplace's Y, hard work on the Figure of the Earth to the 2nd
order,'Woodhouse's remaining apparatus,' Notes about Lambton's and
Kater's errors, Depolarization, Notes of Papers on depolarization in
the Phil. Trans., Magnetic Investigations for Lieut. Foster,
Isochronous Oscillations in a resisting medium, Observations on a
strange piece of Iceland Spar. On Mar. 7th forwarded Preface and Title
Page for my Mathematical Tracts.
"Some time in this term I began to think of the possibility of
observing the diminution of gravity in a deep mine, and communicated
with Whewell, who was disposed to join in experiments. My first notion
was simply to try the rate of a clock, and the Ecton mine was first
thought of. I made enquiries about the Ecton mine through Mr Smith (of
Edensor), and visited the mine, but in the meantime Whewell had made
enquiries in London and found (principally from Dr Paris) that the
mine of Dolcoath near Camborne in Cornwall would be a better place for
the experiment. Dr Paris wrote to me repeatedly, and ultimately we
resolved on trying it there. In my papers on Mar. 21st are various
investigations about attractions in both mines. On Apr. 3rd I went to
London, principally to arrange about Dolcoath, and during April and
May I was engaged in correspondence with Sir H. Davy (President of
the Royal Society), Mr Herschel, and Dr Young (Secretary of the Board
of Longitude) about the loan of instruments and pendulums. On
Apr. 23rd I was practising pendulum-observations (by coincidence); and
about this time repeatedly practised transits with a small instrument
lent by Mr Sheepshanks (with whom my acquaintance must have begun no
long time before) which was erected under a tent in the Fellows'
Walks. On my quires I find various schemes for graduating thermometers
for pendulum experiments.
"I find also Notes of examination of my brother William, who had come
to College last October; and a great deal of correspondence with my
mother and sister and Mr Case, a lawyer, about a troublesome business
with Mr Cropley, an old friend of G. Biddell, to whom my father had
lent _£500_ and whose affairs were in Chancery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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