Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy, George Biddell Airy [dark books to read TXT] 📗

five years of her life she had been very helpless from the effects of a paralytic stroke--a very sad ending to a bright and happy life--and had been continually nursed throughout this time by her two unmarried daughters with the greatest self-denial and devotion. Her husband had been unremitting in his care and attention. Nothing was wanting that the most thoughtful kindness could supply. And in all his trips and excursions his constant and kind letters shewed how anxious he was that she should participate in all his interests and amusements. From the nature of the case it could hardly be said that her death was unexpected, and he received the shock with the manly steadiness which belonged to him. Lady Airy was buried in Playford churchyard.--From Sept. 22nd to Oct. 4 he made a short expedition to Wales (Capel Curig, &c.).--On Dec. 15th he attended the Commemoration at Trinity College, Cambridge.--On Dec. 22nd he went as usual to Playford.

In this year Airy received the high honour of the Freedom of the City of London, in the following communication:


STONE, Mayor.--A Common Council holden in the Chamber of the Guildhall of the City of London, on Thursday the 29th day of April 1875.

Resolved Unanimously

That the Freedom of this City in a Gold Box of the value of One hundred guineas be presented to Sir George Biddell Airy, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D. &c., Astronomer Royal, as a recognition of his indefatigable labours in Astronomy, and of his eminent services in the advancement of practical science, whereby he has so materially benefited the cause of Commerce and Civilization.

MONCKTON.

This Resolution was forwarded with a letter from Benjamin Scott, the Chamberlain. Airy's reply was as follows:


ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH, S.E.
_1875, May 1_.

DEAR SIR,

I have the honour to acknowledge your letter of April 30, accompanied with Copy of the Resolution of the Common Council of the City of London passed at their Meeting of April 29, under signature of the Town Clerk, That the Freedom of the City of London in a valuable Box be presented to me, in recognition of works stated in the Resolution. And I am requested by you to inform you whether it is my intention to accept the compliment proposed by the Corporation.

In reply, I beg you to convey to the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor and the Corporation that I accept with the greatest pride and pleasure the honour which they propose to offer to me. The Freedom of our Great City, conferred by the spontaneous act of its Municipal Governors, is in my estimation the highest honour which it is possible to receive; and its presentation at this time is peculiarly grateful to me.

I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your very obedient servant,
G.B. AIRY.

_Benjamin Scott, Esq.,
&c. &c. &c. Chamberlain of the Corporation of the
City of London._

As it was technically necessary that a Freeman of the City of London should belong to one or other of the City Companies, the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers through their clerk (with very great appropriateness) enquired whether it would be agreeable that that Company should have the privilege of conferring their Honorary Freedom on him, and added: "In soliciting your acquiescence to the proposal I am directed to call attention to the fact that this Guild is permitted to claim all manufacturers of Mathematical and Astronomical Instruments within the City of London, which is now pleaded as an apology for the wish that one so distinguished as yourself in the use of such Instruments should be enrolled as a Member of this Craft." In his reply, accepting the Freedom of the Company, Airy wrote thus: "I shall much value the association with a body whose ostensible title bears so close a relation to the official engagements which have long occupied me. I have had extensive experience both in arranging and in using optical and mathematical instruments, and feel that my own pursuits are closely connected with the original employments of the Company." The Freedom of the Company was duly presented, and the occasion was celebrated by a banquet at the Albion Tavern on Tuesday, July 6th.

The Freedom of the City of London was conferred at a Court of Common Council held at the Guildhall on Thursday the 4th of November. In presenting the gold box containing the Freedom, the Chamberlain, in an eloquent speech, first referred to the fact that this was the first occasion on which the Freedom had been conferred on a person whose name was associated with the sciences other than those of war and statecraft. He then referred to the solid character of his work, in that, while others had turned their attention to the more attractive fields of exploration, the discovery of new worlds or of novel celestial phenomena, he had incessantly devoted himself to the less interesting, less obtrusive, but more valuable walks of practical astronomy. And he instanced as the special grounds of the honour conferred, the compilation of nautical tables of extraordinary accuracy, the improvement of chronometers, the correction of the compasses of iron ships, the restoration of the standards of length and weight, and the Transit of Venus Expeditions. In his reply Airy stated that he regarded the honour just conferred upon him as the greatest and proudest ever received by him. He referred to the fact that the same honour had been previously conferred on the valued friend of his youth, Thomas Clarkson, and said that the circumstance of his succeeding such a man was to himself a great honour and pleasure. He alluded to his having received a small exhibition from one of the London Companies, when he was a poor undergraduate at Cambridge, and acknowledged the great assistance that it had been to him. With regard to his occupation, he said that he had followed it in a great measure because of its practical use, and thought it fortunate that from the first he was connected with an institution in which utility was combined with science. The occasion of this presentation was celebrated by a Banquet at the Mansion House on Saturday July 3rd, 1875, to Sir George Airy (Astronomer Royal) and the Representatives of Learned Societies.

There is no doubt that Airy was extremely gratified by the honour that he had received. It was to him the crowning honour of his life, and coming last of all it threw all his other honours into the shade. To his independent and liberal spirit there was something peculiarly touching in the unsolicited approbation and act of so powerful and disinterested a body as the Corporation of the City of London.


CHAPTER IX.

AT GREENWICH OBSERVATORY FROM JANUARY 1ST, 1876,
TO HIS RESIGNATION OF OFFICE ON AUGUST 15TH,
1881.


1876

"At the door from the Front Court to the staircase of the Octagon Room (the original entrance to the Observatory as erected by Sir Christopher Wren), a small porch-shelter has been often desired. I proposed to fix there a fan-roof of quadrantal form, covering the upper flat stone of the external steps.--On a critical examination of the micrometer-screws of the Transit Circle it was found that the corrections, which range from -1 deg.38" to +0 deg.76", indicate considerable wear in the screws; and it was found that as much as one-hundreth part of an inch had been worn away from some of the threads. The old screws were consequently discarded, and new ones were made by Mr Simms.--The adjustment of the Spectroscope has occupied a great deal of attention. There was astigmatism of the prisms; and false light reflected from the base of the prisms, causing loss both of light and of definition. The latter defect was corrected by altering the angles, and then astigmatism was corrected by a cylindrical lens near the slit. The definition in both planes was then found to be perfect.--The number of small planets has now become so great, and the interest of establishing the elements of all their orbits so small,--while at the same time the light of all those lately discovered is very faint, and the difficulty and doubt of observation greatly increased,--that I have begun to think seriously of limiting future observations to a small number of these objects.--All observations with the Spectroscope have been completely reduced; the measures of lines in the spectra of elements being converted into corresponding wave-lengths, and the observations of displacement of lines in the spectra of stars being reduced so as to exhibit the concluded motion in miles per second, after applying a correction for the earth's motion. Sixteen measures of the F line in the spectrum of the Moon as compared with hydrogen give a displacement corresponding to a motion of less than two miles a second, which seems to shew that the method of comparison now adopted is free from systematic error; and this is supported by the manner in which motions of approach and recession are distributed among the stars examined on each night of observation. The results recently obtained appear to be on the whole as consistent as can be expected in such delicate observations, and they support in a remarkable manner the conclusions of Dr Huggins, with regard to the motions of those stars which he examined.--Photographs of the sun have been taken with the photoheliograph on 182 days. On one of the photographs, which was accidentally exposed while the drop slit was being drawn up, there appears to be a faint image of a cloud-like prominence close to the sun's limb, though the exposure probably only amounted to a fraction of a second. A prominence of unusual brilliancy was seen with the Spectroscope about the same time and in the same position with reference to the Sun's limb. All groups of Sun-spots and faculae have been numbered, and the dates of their first and last appearances entered up to the present time. Areas of spots have been measured, and the measures have been reduced to millionths of the Sun's visible hemisphere.--The examination of the readings of the deep-sunk thermometers from 1846 to 1873 has exhibited some laws which had been sufficiently established before this time, and some which were less known. Among the former were the successive retardations