MacTutor
George Airy
Times obituary
Six months after the completion of his 90th year, Sir George Biddell Airy, the seventh Astronomer Royal, has passed away. He died at Greenwich, at half-past 6 on Saturday evening, after a few months' illness. He had a fall in the summer and received an injury which involved a surgical operation. This seemed to be successful at the time, but he has been gradually sinking ever since.
Sir George Airy's name is one that has never come prominently before the general public, though for 65 years it has been a familiar and honoured name in the great world of science. As far as we know, the only work by him which has a professedly popular stamp is a little book entitled "Popular Astronomy," which has passed through numerous editions, but which is normally intended "to explain to intelligent persons the principles on which the instruments of an observatory are constructed." The fact is, the late Astronomer-Royal's mind was rigidly scientific—we might almost say rigidly mathematical Any scientific problem or scientific theory, or indeed, any application of science which could not be made to square with his severely mathematical tests, he was apt to regard with distrust. It may be remembered that in the early stages of construction of the Forth Bridge he wrote at considerable length to prove that no bridge built upon the principles which were being applied could possibly stand. But in the peculiar position which Sir George Airy had to fulfil as Astronomer Royal, these little failings probably leaned to virtue's side. The great business of his life was to deal practically with mathematical astronomy, to reconstruct a great observatory, and to carry out its chief object—astronomical observations on mathematical lines. This, his great life-work, he accomplished with such masterly completeness that left nothing to be desired.
Sir George Airy was born at Alnwick, Northumberland, on July 27, 1801; he was educated at private schools, at Hereford and Colchester, and at Manchester Grammar School, from which he passed in 1819 to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a sizar. He was elected scholar in 1822, graduated as Senior Wrangler in 1823, and was elected a Fellow of his college in 1824. His love for mathematics was developed at a very early age, and he began at once to apply them to astronomy and to certain branches of physics. Thus in 1824-25 he published papers on "The Lunar and Planetary Theories," on "The Figure of the Earth," on "The Undulatory Theory of Optics," on "The Forms of the Teeth of Wheels," and on "Escapements." In 1826 he was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics matics at Cambridge. He continued to devote himself to experimental philosophy and applied mathematics, at the same time showing a genuine interest in a wide range of subjects in the exact and physical sciences. Undulatory optics especially occupied much of his attention. In 1828 he was elected Plumian Professor of Astronomy to which was attached the direction of the Observatory, and in this position his peculiar genius as an observer and as a director of astronomical observations at once manifested itself. From this time onwards, Sir George Airy's activity was ceaseless, and its results were of the highest moment to the particular branch of science with which his name was so intimately associated. He devised a perfect routine for taking the various classes of observations, which greatly contributed to their scientific and practical value. At the same time he continued to give diligent attention to the theoretical dopart- ments of his science, and in 1831 published a paper of great importance "On the Inequality of Long Period in the Motions of the Earth and Venus." In 1832 he wrote for the British Association a report, which is still of value, on "The Recent Progress of Astronomy."
Some three years later, on January 1, 1836, Professor Airy, as he was then, entered upon the great work of his life, being appointed Astronomer-Royal in succession to Mr. Pond. The fact that this appointment rests with the First Lord of the Admiralty is significant of the originally close connection of Greenwich with the art of navigation. It may be of interest to recall the fact that the Observatory was built in 1675, and that the first Astronomer-Royal was John Flamsteed, who reigned from 1675 to 1719. He was succeeded by Edmund Halley, whose successors were James Bradley, 1742; Nathaniel Bliss, 1762; Nevil Maskelyne, 1765; John Pond, 1811; and George Biddell Airy, 1835. The new Astronomer-Royal set himself at once to renew the equipment and to reform the routine and the methods of the Observatory. The first of the new in-struments was not, however, erected until 1847, and, like all the other instruments, it was made according to his own designs. The end to be achieved by this new instrument (an altazimuth) was to make observations out of the meridian as accurate as observations in the meridian, and its main object was the obser-vation of the moon. This led to a great improvement in the tables of the moon, as it enabled the astronomers to double the number of observations of our satellite. Among the other new instruments which were erected under the supervision, and after the designs of, Sir George Airy were a new meridian circle, a "reflex-zenith-tube," to replace the Troughton zenith-sector, a new equatorial, a double-image micro-meter, and the orbit-sweeper for detecting comets approaching the perihelion passage. In fact, by 1859 there was not a single person or instrument in the observatory that had been there in Mir. Pond's time. During Sir George's long tenure of office the observations were made with absolute and uninterrupted regularity, and were carefully reduced and placed at the disposal of all who could make use of them. These observations, with the annual reports which he presented to the Board of Visitors, for form a collection of astro-nomical data of great bulk and of the highest value, which in themselves will form a permanent monument to Sir George's genius as an observer and organizer.
But he did not confine himself to the routine work of the Observatory. Another monumental undertaking was the reduction of the Greenwich lunar and planetary observations since 1750. This arduous task was begun in 1833 and completed in 1818. As Profossor Winnecke (to whose memoir on Sir George Airy in the "Scientific Worthies" series in Nature we are indebted for much of the information in this article) says, our present tables of the motions of the moon and of the planets rest for the greater part on the bulky volumes which contain these reductions were undertaken under Sir George Airy, all of them of the utmost value in exact astronomy. At the same time, it was his duty to organize other undertakings more or less directly connected with the work of which he had charge. Thus, in 1842 he visited Turin to observe the total solar eclipse;in 1851 he visited Sweden for the same purpose; and in 1860 he organised the eclipse expedition to Spain. On him also fell the long and arduous preparations for the equipment of the British expedition for observing the transit of Venus in 1874; as long ago as 1848 he was occupied with the subject. In 1847 he visited Russia to inspect the new central observatory in that country. Although Sir George was not as ready as someone to recognize new departures in his science, he nevertheless showed a creditable liberality of spirit and practice in this respect. At a very early period of his career he introduced magnetic and meteorological observations at Greenwich, and at a later period he recognized the new astronomy so far as to organize heliographic and spectroscopic services at the Observatory. But Sir George did much other useful work both inside and outside the Observatory. Thus we may mention his experiments on the deviation of the compass in iron-built ships; his researches on the density of the earth by observations in the Harton Colliery; his services in fixing the breadth of railways, and in introducing a new system for the sale of gas. He was chairman of the Commission appointed to consider the general question of standards, and of the Commission in-trusted with the supe superintendence of the new standards of length and weight, after the great fire which destroyed the Houses of Parliament in 1834. He conducted the astronomical observations preparatory to the delimitation of the boundary line between Canada and the United States, and sided in tracing the Oregon boundary. He retired from his office at Greenwich in 1881, after 45 years of service.
We have only referred to a few of the important contributions that Sir George Airy made during his long career to the noble science with which his name is so intimately associated. He was not only a man of stupendous industry, great accomplishment, and highly trained intellect, but, it must be evident from what has been said, of considerable originality of conception and invention. If he made no stupendous discovery in science, his contributions to the store of astronomical knowledge, directly and indirectly, are of such bulk and high value that his name must live in the history of scientific progress in the 19th century. As Director of the Greenwich Observatory, his discipline was severe; but evidently reform was necessary, and, in an institution where precision and regularity of routine are of the utmost importance, severity of discipline is an error on the safe side. Sir George was always accessible to those desirous of making use of his great knowledge and skill. He was a man of essentially simple nature and habits, whose heart was in his work, and who did not excessively value the social advantages which his position gave him. We cannot but recall the fact that Sir George Airy diverged into theology in his "Notes on the Earlier Hebrew Scriptures (18) (1876), with no more satisfactory results than were achieved by Newton. He was also a man of antiquarian tastes, and occasionally wrote on his hobby in the Athenaum and elsewhere.
Sir George was President of the Royal Society from 1871 to 1873; he was made a C.B. in 1871, and a K.C.B. in 1872. Ho was medallist of the French Institute, of the Royal Society (twice), of the Royal Astronomical Society (twice), and also of the Institution of Civil Engineers, for suggestions on the construction of bridges of very wide span. From Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh he received honorary degrees; and of many scientific societies at home and abroad he was an honorary member. On his retirement in 1881 he received a pension of £1,100.
Among the more important works by Sir George Airy may be mentioned "Treatise on Errors of Observation" (1861), "Treatise on Sound" (1869), "Treatise on Magnetism" (1870), besides contributions to the "Penny Cyclopaedia" and the "Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," on such subjects as "Gravitation," "Trigonometry," "Figure of the Earth," and "Tides and Waves."
__________________________________________________________
SIR G. AIRY AND THE BATTLE OF THE GAUGES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,
The reference to the life and work of the late Sir George Biddell Airy, which appeared in The Times of the 5th inst., omits to mention the important part which he took with reference to the gauge of railways.
At the time when the battle of the gauges was at its height, G. B. Airy, Frederick Smith, and Peter Barlow were appointed a Royal Commission to report upon the question of gauge. They, after most careful investigation, came to the conclusion, in 1846, that the "narrow gauge" was to be preferred to the "broad". Sir G. B. Airy and his fellow commissioners thus rendered a great public service in preventing various gauges being further adopted upon the English railways.
I am yours truly, CLEMENT E. STRETTON, C.E.
Saxe-Coburg-street, Leicester
Six months after the completion of his 90th year, Sir George Biddell Airy, the seventh Astronomer Royal, has passed away. He died at Greenwich, at half-past 6 on Saturday evening, after a few months' illness. He had a fall in the summer and received an injury which involved a surgical operation. This seemed to be successful at the time, but he has been gradually sinking ever since.
Sir George Airy's name is one that has never come prominently before the general public, though for 65 years it has been a familiar and honoured name in the great world of science. As far as we know, the only work by him which has a professedly popular stamp is a little book entitled "Popular Astronomy," which has passed through numerous editions, but which is normally intended "to explain to intelligent persons the principles on which the instruments of an observatory are constructed." The fact is, the late Astronomer-Royal's mind was rigidly scientific—we might almost say rigidly mathematical Any scientific problem or scientific theory, or indeed, any application of science which could not be made to square with his severely mathematical tests, he was apt to regard with distrust. It may be remembered that in the early stages of construction of the Forth Bridge he wrote at considerable length to prove that no bridge built upon the principles which were being applied could possibly stand. But in the peculiar position which Sir George Airy had to fulfil as Astronomer Royal, these little failings probably leaned to virtue's side. The great business of his life was to deal practically with mathematical astronomy, to reconstruct a great observatory, and to carry out its chief object—astronomical observations on mathematical lines. This, his great life-work, he accomplished with such masterly completeness that left nothing to be desired.
Sir George Airy was born at Alnwick, Northumberland, on July 27, 1801; he was educated at private schools, at Hereford and Colchester, and at Manchester Grammar School, from which he passed in 1819 to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a sizar. He was elected scholar in 1822, graduated as Senior Wrangler in 1823, and was elected a Fellow of his college in 1824. His love for mathematics was developed at a very early age, and he began at once to apply them to astronomy and to certain branches of physics. Thus in 1824-25 he published papers on "The Lunar and Planetary Theories," on "The Figure of the Earth," on "The Undulatory Theory of Optics," on "The Forms of the Teeth of Wheels," and on "Escapements." In 1826 he was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics matics at Cambridge. He continued to devote himself to experimental philosophy and applied mathematics, at the same time showing a genuine interest in a wide range of subjects in the exact and physical sciences. Undulatory optics especially occupied much of his attention. In 1828 he was elected Plumian Professor of Astronomy to which was attached the direction of the Observatory, and in this position his peculiar genius as an observer and as a director of astronomical observations at once manifested itself. From this time onwards, Sir George Airy's activity was ceaseless, and its results were of the highest moment to the particular branch of science with which his name was so intimately associated. He devised a perfect routine for taking the various classes of observations, which greatly contributed to their scientific and practical value. At the same time he continued to give diligent attention to the theoretical dopart- ments of his science, and in 1831 published a paper of great importance "On the Inequality of Long Period in the Motions of the Earth and Venus." In 1832 he wrote for the British Association a report, which is still of value, on "The Recent Progress of Astronomy."
Some three years later, on January 1, 1836, Professor Airy, as he was then, entered upon the great work of his life, being appointed Astronomer-Royal in succession to Mr. Pond. The fact that this appointment rests with the First Lord of the Admiralty is significant of the originally close connection of Greenwich with the art of navigation. It may be of interest to recall the fact that the Observatory was built in 1675, and that the first Astronomer-Royal was John Flamsteed, who reigned from 1675 to 1719. He was succeeded by Edmund Halley, whose successors were James Bradley, 1742; Nathaniel Bliss, 1762; Nevil Maskelyne, 1765; John Pond, 1811; and George Biddell Airy, 1835. The new Astronomer-Royal set himself at once to renew the equipment and to reform the routine and the methods of the Observatory. The first of the new in-struments was not, however, erected until 1847, and, like all the other instruments, it was made according to his own designs. The end to be achieved by this new instrument (an altazimuth) was to make observations out of the meridian as accurate as observations in the meridian, and its main object was the obser-vation of the moon. This led to a great improvement in the tables of the moon, as it enabled the astronomers to double the number of observations of our satellite. Among the other new instruments which were erected under the supervision, and after the designs of, Sir George Airy were a new meridian circle, a "reflex-zenith-tube," to replace the Troughton zenith-sector, a new equatorial, a double-image micro-meter, and the orbit-sweeper for detecting comets approaching the perihelion passage. In fact, by 1859 there was not a single person or instrument in the observatory that had been there in Mir. Pond's time. During Sir George's long tenure of office the observations were made with absolute and uninterrupted regularity, and were carefully reduced and placed at the disposal of all who could make use of them. These observations, with the annual reports which he presented to the Board of Visitors, for form a collection of astro-nomical data of great bulk and of the highest value, which in themselves will form a permanent monument to Sir George's genius as an observer and organizer.
But he did not confine himself to the routine work of the Observatory. Another monumental undertaking was the reduction of the Greenwich lunar and planetary observations since 1750. This arduous task was begun in 1833 and completed in 1818. As Profossor Winnecke (to whose memoir on Sir George Airy in the "Scientific Worthies" series in Nature we are indebted for much of the information in this article) says, our present tables of the motions of the moon and of the planets rest for the greater part on the bulky volumes which contain these reductions were undertaken under Sir George Airy, all of them of the utmost value in exact astronomy. At the same time, it was his duty to organize other undertakings more or less directly connected with the work of which he had charge. Thus, in 1842 he visited Turin to observe the total solar eclipse;in 1851 he visited Sweden for the same purpose; and in 1860 he organised the eclipse expedition to Spain. On him also fell the long and arduous preparations for the equipment of the British expedition for observing the transit of Venus in 1874; as long ago as 1848 he was occupied with the subject. In 1847 he visited Russia to inspect the new central observatory in that country. Although Sir George was not as ready as someone to recognize new departures in his science, he nevertheless showed a creditable liberality of spirit and practice in this respect. At a very early period of his career he introduced magnetic and meteorological observations at Greenwich, and at a later period he recognized the new astronomy so far as to organize heliographic and spectroscopic services at the Observatory. But Sir George did much other useful work both inside and outside the Observatory. Thus we may mention his experiments on the deviation of the compass in iron-built ships; his researches on the density of the earth by observations in the Harton Colliery; his services in fixing the breadth of railways, and in introducing a new system for the sale of gas. He was chairman of the Commission appointed to consider the general question of standards, and of the Commission in-trusted with the supe superintendence of the new standards of length and weight, after the great fire which destroyed the Houses of Parliament in 1834. He conducted the astronomical observations preparatory to the delimitation of the boundary line between Canada and the United States, and sided in tracing the Oregon boundary. He retired from his office at Greenwich in 1881, after 45 years of service.
We have only referred to a few of the important contributions that Sir George Airy made during his long career to the noble science with which his name is so intimately associated. He was not only a man of stupendous industry, great accomplishment, and highly trained intellect, but, it must be evident from what has been said, of considerable originality of conception and invention. If he made no stupendous discovery in science, his contributions to the store of astronomical knowledge, directly and indirectly, are of such bulk and high value that his name must live in the history of scientific progress in the 19th century. As Director of the Greenwich Observatory, his discipline was severe; but evidently reform was necessary, and, in an institution where precision and regularity of routine are of the utmost importance, severity of discipline is an error on the safe side. Sir George was always accessible to those desirous of making use of his great knowledge and skill. He was a man of essentially simple nature and habits, whose heart was in his work, and who did not excessively value the social advantages which his position gave him. We cannot but recall the fact that Sir George Airy diverged into theology in his "Notes on the Earlier Hebrew Scriptures (18) (1876), with no more satisfactory results than were achieved by Newton. He was also a man of antiquarian tastes, and occasionally wrote on his hobby in the Athenaum and elsewhere.
Sir George was President of the Royal Society from 1871 to 1873; he was made a C.B. in 1871, and a K.C.B. in 1872. Ho was medallist of the French Institute, of the Royal Society (twice), of the Royal Astronomical Society (twice), and also of the Institution of Civil Engineers, for suggestions on the construction of bridges of very wide span. From Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh he received honorary degrees; and of many scientific societies at home and abroad he was an honorary member. On his retirement in 1881 he received a pension of £1,100.
Among the more important works by Sir George Airy may be mentioned "Treatise on Errors of Observation" (1861), "Treatise on Sound" (1869), "Treatise on Magnetism" (1870), besides contributions to the "Penny Cyclopaedia" and the "Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," on such subjects as "Gravitation," "Trigonometry," "Figure of the Earth," and "Tides and Waves."
__________________________________________________________
SIR G. AIRY AND THE BATTLE OF THE GAUGES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,
The reference to the life and work of the late Sir George Biddell Airy, which appeared in The Times of the 5th inst., omits to mention the important part which he took with reference to the gauge of railways.
At the time when the battle of the gauges was at its height, G. B. Airy, Frederick Smith, and Peter Barlow were appointed a Royal Commission to report upon the question of gauge. They, after most careful investigation, came to the conclusion, in 1846, that the "narrow gauge" was to be preferred to the "broad". Sir G. B. Airy and his fellow commissioners thus rendered a great public service in preventing various gauges being further adopted upon the English railways.
I am yours truly, CLEMENT E. STRETTON, C.E.
Saxe-Coburg-street, Leicester
