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Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary SomervilleSomerville, Mary

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Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville

Name: Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville
Author: Somerville, Mary

Somerville, Mary

Somerville, Mary, 1780-1872; Women scientists -- Great Britain -- Biography

Somerville and I spent the Christmas at Collingwood with our friends the
Herschels. The party consisted of Mr. Airy, Astronomer-Royal, and Mr.
Adams, who had taken high honours at Cambridge. This young man and M.
Leverrier, the celebrated French astronomer, had separately calculated
the orbit of Neptune and announced it so nearly at the same time, that
each country claims the honour of the discovery. Mr. Adams told
Somerville that the following sentence in the sixth edition of the
"Connexion of the Physical Sciences," published in the year 1842, put it
into his head to calculate the orbit of Neptune. "If after the lapse of
years the tables formed from a combination of numerous observations
should be still inadequate to represent the motions of Uranus, the
discrepancies may reveal the existence, nay, even the mass and orbit of
a body placed for ever beyond the sphere of vision." That prediction was
fulfilled in 1846, by the discovery of Neptune revolving at the distance
of 3,000,000,000 of miles from the sun. The mass of Neptune, the size
and position of his orbit in space, and his periodic time, were
determined from his disturbing action on Uranus before the planet itself
had been seen.

We left Collingwood as ever with regret.

    [The following is an extract from a letter written by my mother
    during this visit:--]

    FROM MRS. SOMERVILLE TO W. GREIG, ESQ.

    COLLINGWOOD, _1st January, 1848_.

    ... You can more easily conceive than I can describe the great
    kindness and affection which we have received from both Sir John and
    Lady Herschel; I feel a pride and pleasure beyond what I can
    express in having such friends. Collingwood is a house by itself in
    the world, there certainly is nothing like it for all that is great
    and good. The charm of the conversation is only equalled by its
    variety--every subject Sir John touches turns to doubly refined
    gold; profound, brilliant, amiable, and highly poetical, I could
    never end admiring and praising him. Then the children are so nice
    and he so kind and amusing to them, making them quite his friends
    and companions.

                              Yours, my dearest Woronzow,
                                        Most affectionately,
                                                  M. SOMERVILLE.

       *     *     *     *     *

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary SomervilleSomerville, Mary

History

Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville

Somerville, Mary

Somerville, Mary, 1780-1872; Women scientists -- Great Britain -- Biography

Somerville and I spent the Christmas at Collingwood with our friends the
Herschels. The party consisted of Mr. Airy, Astronomer-Royal, and Mr.
Adams, who had taken high honours at Cambridge. This young man and M.
Leverrier, the celebrated French astronomer, had separately calculated
the orbit of Neptune and announced it so nearly at the same time, that
each country claims the honour of the discovery. Mr. Adams told
Somerville that the following sentence in the sixth edition of the
"Connexion of the Physical Sciences," published in the year 1842, put it
into his head to calculate the orbit of Neptune. "If after the lapse of
years the tables formed from a combination of numerous observations
should be still inadequate to represent the motions of Uranus, the
discrepancies may reveal the existence, nay, even the mass and orbit of
a body placed for ever beyond the sphere of vision." That prediction was
fulfilled in 1846, by the discovery of Neptune revolving at the distance
of 3,000,000,000 of miles from the sun. The mass of Neptune, the size
and position of his orbit in space, and his periodic time, were
determined from his disturbing action on Uranus before the planet itself
had been seen.

We left Collingwood as ever with regret.

    [The following is an extract from a letter written by my mother
    during this visit:--]

    FROM MRS. SOMERVILLE TO W. GREIG, ESQ.

    COLLINGWOOD, _1st January, 1848_.

    ... You can more easily conceive than I can describe the great
    kindness and affection which we have received from both Sir John and
    Lady Herschel; I feel a pride and pleasure beyond what I can
    express in having such friends. Collingwood is a house by itself in
    the world, there certainly is nothing like it for all that is great
    and good. The charm of the conversation is only equalled by its
    variety--every subject Sir John touches turns to doubly refined
    gold; profound, brilliant, amiable, and highly poetical, I could
    never end admiring and praising him. Then the children are so nice
    and he so kind and amusing to them, making them quite his friends
    and companions.

                              Yours, my dearest Woronzow,
                                        Most affectionately,
                                                  M. SOMERVILLE.

       *     *     *     *     *

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville

Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville

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