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 Aug. 25th Mr Spring Rice (Lord Monteagle) wrote to me to enquire
whether I would accept the office of Astronomer Royal if it were
vacant. I replied (from Keswick) on Aug. 30th, expressing my general
willingness, stipulating for my freedom of vote, &c., and referring to
my letter to the Duke of Sussex. On Oct. 8th Lord Auckland, First Lord
of the Admiralty, wrote: and on Oct. 10th I provisionally accepted the
office. On Oct. 30th I wrote to ask for leave to give a course of
lectures at Cambridge in case that my successor at Cambridge should
find difficulty in doing it in the first year: and to this Lord
Auckland assented on Oct. 31st. All this arrangement was for a time
upset by the change of Ministry which shortly followed.
"Amongst miscellaneous matters, in March I had some correspondence
with the Duke of Northumberland about the Cauchaix Telescope. In
August I had to announce to him that the flint-lens had been a little
shattered in Cauchaix's shop and required regrinding: finally on
Dec. 17th I announced its arrival at Cambridge.--In the Planetary
Reductions, I find that I employed one computer (Glaisher) for 34
weeks.--In November the Lalande Medal was awarded to me by the French
Institut, and Mr Pentland conveyed it to me in December.--On March
14th I gave the Cambridge Philosophical Society a Paper, 'Continuation
of researches into the value of Jupiter's Mass.' On Apr. 14th, 'On the
Latitude of Cambridge Observatory.' On June 13th, 'On the position of
the Ecliptic,' and 'On the Solar Eclipse of 1833,' to the Royal
Astronomical Society. On Nov. 24th, 'On Computing the Diffraction of
an Object Glass,' to the Cambridge Society. And on Dec. 3rd, 'On the
Calculation of Perturbations,' to the Nautical Almanac: this Paper was
written at Keswick between Aug. 22nd and 29th.--I also furnished Mr
Sheepshanks with investigations regarding the form of the pivots of
the Cape Circle."
1835
"On Jan. 9th 1835 I was elected correspondent of the French Academy;
and on Jan. 26th Mr Pentland sent me _£12. 6s._, the balance of the
proceeds of the Lalande Medal Fund.--I prepared my Paper for Smith's
Prizes, and joined in the Examination as usual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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