... attained respectively their 64th , 67th , 77th , 80th , 88th , 90th , 94th , 97th , and 100th year - the last five averaging 93 years 100 days.

... Sigurd the Dane, who in 908 made a successful raid on Normandy, assumed the name of Perigal, and settled in France. The English branch of the family sprang from Gideon Perigal and his wife, Madeline Duval of Dieppe, Huguenots who escaped to London. Henry Perigal belongs to the tenth generation of their descendants.

To this subject he brought to bear great patience, perseverance, and delicacy of manipulation. Many of the curves so drawn by him between 1830 and 1840 are exquisite examples of fine geometrical tracings performed by means of the bow pen.

... we wish to call attention to the fact that the specimens of curves in this article are all the product of machinery. We are indebted for them to the kindness of Mr Henry Perigal, of Smith Street, Chelsea, a gentleman whose pursuits are scientific, and who practices the higher branches of turning as an amateur, and has devoted much time and money to the investigation of the effects of combined motions, as shown in the curves, resulting from them. Most of those given in this article were executed in his lathe by means of Ibbetson's geometric chuck, a contrivance the results of which are well known to turners, but which have never been exhibited, as far as we know, in any article professing to give a mathematical classification of them.

The present series of papers consist chiefly of notes and diagrams extracted from my note-books and sketches made during the last forty years. I have devoted much time and thought to the solution of geometric theorems and problems by dissections and transpositions, viz. in proving the equality of areas in equivalent rectangles, &c., and investigating how the figures could be best dissected, so that their component parts might be fitted together in either form, and I have often contemplated proving all the suitable Theorems and Problems in Euclid by such dissections and transpositions, so as to render them self-evident by ocular demonstration.

... generating retrogressive or recurrent curves, by which the moving body, when it has reached the extreme points of the curve, retrogrades or returns back in exactly the same line along which it advanced; constantly moving forward and backward from one extremity to the other; and always tracing and retracing the same line as it alternately advances and recedes.

The evening event was held at the Marquis of Northampton's London home on The Terrace, Piccadilly. The location of the conversazione is described in contemporary accounts: 'The suite of saloons is four in number: the first, facing Piccadilly, being the reception-room. The several apartments are decorated in that quiet, elegant style by which the older London mansions of our nobility are so happily distinguished ... It is customary, at réunions like the present, to assemble models of new inventions, rare works of art, and other productions of genius, for the gratification of the company'.

Mr Perigal was desirous of being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, believing that his investigations in curvilinear motion; his mechanical contrivances; and his services in various branches of science, entitled him to that distinction; but he was aware that his known opinions, respecting certain dogmas relating to Astronomy - not being orthodox - would be likely to militate against his admission; and so it proved when his name was put to the vote (when it is probable that many of his personal friends voted adversely); he was naturally disappointed with the result, but observed that his possessing an open mind in all questions, and not adopting doctrines without his judgment assented thereto, should be a reason in his favour, instead of against him.

Dined with the Astronomical Club; after dinner, the question as to the moon's rotation was put to the vote, when the numbers were: 10 for Adams and rotation, 11 for Perigal and non-rotation.

Mr Henry Perigal helped me twenty years ago with the diagrams, direct from the lathe to the wood, for the article 'Trochoidal Curves,' in the 'Penny Cyclopaedia'; these cuts add very greatly to the value of the article, which, indeed, could not have been made intelligible without them. He has had many years' experience, as an amateur turner, in combination of double and triple circular motions, and has published valuable diagrams in profusion. A person to whom the double circular motion is familiar in the lathe naturally looks upon one circle moving upon another as in simple motion, if the second circle be fixed to the revolving radius, so that one and the same point of the moving circle travels upon the fixed circle.

Mr Perigal commenced his attack upon the moon for moving about her axis, in the first of the tracts above [On the phenomena arising from the diurnal rotation of the Earth on its own axis, and its annual revolution round the Sun], ten years before Mr Jellinger Symons, but he did not think it necessary to make it a subject for the 'Times' newspaper; His familiarity with combined motions enabled him to handle his arguments much better than Mr J Symons could do: in fact, he is the clearest assailant of the lot that turned out with Mr J Symons. But he is as wrong as the rest. The assault is now I suppose, abandoned, until it becomes epidemic again. This it will do: it is one of those fallacies which are very tempting. There was a dispute on the subject in 1748, between James Ferguson and an anonymous opponent; and I think there have been others.

... there is no masking the fact that he was a paradoxer pure and simple, his main conviction being that the Moon did not rotate, and his main astronomical aim in life being to convince others, and especially young men not hardened in the opposite belief, of their grave error. To this end he made diagrams, constructed models, and wrote poems; bearing with heroic cheerfulness the continued disappointment of finding none of them of any avail.

During the summer vacation, Mr Henry Perigal of London proposed to me the following problem: "To determine the proportions of an epicycloid of which the loops touch each other."

The solution of this problem contains some points of interest to the general analyst, and exhibits relations between certain trigonometric formulae and algebraic equations. I, therefore, offer an outline of it to the attention of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Mr Perigal had obtained the solution, in a considerable variety of cases by the method of trial, aided by mechanical appliances, and has exhibited them in his beautiful series of machine-engraved epicycloids.

1. Compound Geometric Chuck, producing the kinematic retrogressive parabola, by continuous motion; either on a moving plane by a fixed point, or on a fixed plane by a moving point.
   
   
2. "Soldier Experiment." Model designed to demonstrate the relative effects of revolution and of rotation, separate or combined, by the movements of soldiers.
   
   
3. Compass Experiment, demonstrating that a magnetised needle does, but an unmagnetised needle does not, maintain its parallelism while revolving in a circle.
   
   
4. Gyroscope, demonstrating the effects of revolution and of rotation, the two ways of turning round.
   
   
5. Gyroscope, demonstrating that revolution alone will account for our always seeing the same face of the moon.
   
   
6. Selenoscope, to demonstrate the kinematic effects of the three hypotheses of the moon's motion, as a satellite of the earth.
   
   
7. Kinescopes, illustrating the laws of compound circular motion, by ocular demonstrations of their representative curves, shown by bright beads revolving with great rapidity.

When our Society was formed [1865] he would have liked to join it at once, but feared that his paradoxical views on the subject of astronomical motions would disqualify him; he was much pleased therefore when, some years later, De Morgan offered to propose him as a member and signed his nomination form.

... supported by various dignified figures: chemist William Crookes, electricians William Preece and David Hughes, physicists C V Boys and Silvanus Thompson, and Augustus Stroh, the inventor of the horn violin.

He was a member of the Astronomical, Microscopical, Meteorological, Photographic, and several other scientific Societies, and a very regular attendant at the meetings of all, usually staying to the end, and often being the last to leave; and it may be said that for thirty or forty years, during eight months of the year, he divided his time between daily office work at 29 Threadneedle Street and evening attendance at the meetings of scientific societies, the lectures at the Royal Institution, &c.

He was a warm friend, and a pleasant companion, gentle in manner, amiable, kind-hearted, and generous, interested in the topics of the day, and shrewd without being cynical. He rarely left London, and probably never went abroad in the last half of his life. At some time he had made a voyage to Madeira. Twenty years or more ago he let his beard grow, and since then his refined face, slight and fragile form, and long white beard and hair, made him a striking and picturesque figure. He ceased to attend scientific meetings two or three years ago, and for the last year or more had ceased to leave his lodgings; but there was no failure of mind or eye-sight.

He was remarkably vigorous until the last few years, and it may be recorded that on the occasion of the 90th birthday of Sir G B Airy [27 July 1891] - which was celebrated on Saturday 25 July by a reception at the White House, Greenwich Park - Mr Perigal walked up the steep Croom's Hill to the reception without apparently the least distress, being himself a year older that the distinguished nonagenarian. During the last year or two, however, his strength had failed, and he died peacefully on 6 June 1898.