Sir George Airy has been repeatedly called into council on matters of grave difficulty by the government. He was chairman of the royal commission empowered to supervise… contriving new standards of length and of weight… He was consulted… in respect to the bewildering disturbance of the magnetic compass in iron-built ships of war. Thereupon he contrived an ingenious system of mechanical construction, through a combination of magnets and iron. …and the system was generally adopted. He conducted the astronomical observations necessary to the drawing of the boundary-line now traceable on the map of the New World between the Canadas and the United States. During the battle of the gauges in the railway world Sir George Airy strenuously advocated the narrow gauge…

Sir George Airy has been repeatedly called into council on matters of grave difficulty by the government. He was chairman of the royal commission empowered to supervise… contriving new standards of length and of weight… He was consulted… in respect to the bewildering disturbance of the magnetic compass in iron-built ships of war. Thereupon he […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020

In 1854 he approximated more nearly than any previous investigation… the weight of the earth, through a series of experiments on the relative vibration of a pendulum at the top and bottom of Harton Coal-pit.

In 1854 he approximated more nearly than any previous investigation… the weight of the earth, through a series of experiments on the relative vibration of a pendulum at the top and bottom of Harton Coal-pit.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020

During Sir George Airy’s rule at the observatory he has… thrown considerable light on ancient chronology by his ingenious calculation of some of the most renowned of historical eclipses.

During Sir George Airy’s rule at the observatory he has… thrown considerable light on ancient chronology by his ingenious calculation of some of the most renowned of historical eclipses.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020

Professor Airy, in his thirty-fourth year, became Astronomer Royal. Thirty-eight years have since elapsed. Under his directions… the organization of the establishment at Greenwich has been completely transformed. …He has contrived to establish newer and sounder methods of calculation and publication. He has introduced, constructed, mounted, and employed, a series of novel instruments for the advancement of astronomic research. Perhaps the finest transit-circle at present anywhere to be found is the one he there constructed in 1860, the circles being no less than six feet in diameter, and the telescope affixed between the two graduated disks being twelve feet long, and having an object-glass of as many as eight inches in aperture. Through this splendid apparatus the altitude of the stars, as well as the time of meridian passage, is now unerringly marked at the great national observatory. But the greatest of all the instruments established by him at Greenwich is a large, first-class equatorium…

Professor Airy, in his thirty-fourth year, became Astronomer Royal. Thirty-eight years have since elapsed. Under his directions… the organization of the establishment at Greenwich has been completely transformed. …He has contrived to establish newer and sounder methods of calculation and publication. He has introduced, constructed, mounted, and employed, a series of novel instruments for the […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020

Already… he began those remarkable improvements in the method of calculating and publishing the observations which eventually became the law at Greenwich and at all the other great observatories. …at Cambridge he superintended the construction and mounting… of a series of renowned astronomical instruments. In that observatory, he brought into use a noble specimen of the equatorial, being that peculiar description of telescope which has its fixed axis so directed to the pole of the heavens that the tube may be made to follow any star by a single motion. There, moreover, he brought into effective employment a mural circle of admirable construction, bearing a telescope which revolves in the plane of the meridian, the whole being rigidly bound into some immovable structure of ponderous masonry.

Already… he began those remarkable improvements in the method of calculating and publishing the observations which eventually became the law at Greenwich and at all the other great observatories. …at Cambridge he superintended the construction and mounting… of a series of renowned astronomical instruments. In that observatory, he brought into use a noble specimen of […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020

Prof. Airy, once elevated to that position… he for nearly ten years—namely from 1827 to 1836—delivered with admirable effect, a series of public lectures on experimental philosophy, by which his scientific reputation was considerably advanced. …it was one of the earliest means of effectively illustrating the marvelous phenomena constituting the now almost universally adopted undulatory theory of light. Two years after Prof. Airy’s induction… the estimation in which he was held at the university was still further signalized by his election to the Plumian Professorship. …he at once obtained, by right of his position, the supreme command of the Cambridge Observatory.

Prof. Airy, once elevated to that position… he for nearly ten years—namely from 1827 to 1836—delivered with admirable effect, a series of public lectures on experimental philosophy, by which his scientific reputation was considerably advanced. …it was one of the earliest means of effectively illustrating the marvelous phenomena constituting the now almost universally adopted undulatory […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020

From the Colchester Grammar-School, when eighteen years of age, he went, in 1819, to Trinity College, Cambridge. Three years afterward he was elected to a scholarship. In 1823, on his graduating B. A., young Airy came out as Senior Wrangler. In 1824 he obtained his fellowship at Trinity. His degree of M. A. was taken in 1826, and he was simultaneously elected, though only then in his twenty-fifth year, as Lucasian Professor at Cambridge. Illustrious philosophers like Barrow and Newton had preceeded him… Latterly, however, the office had become, in a great measure, purely honorary, and might also be said to have degenerated into a sinecure.

From the Colchester Grammar-School, when eighteen years of age, he went, in 1819, to Trinity College, Cambridge. Three years afterward he was elected to a scholarship. In 1823, on his graduating B. A., young Airy came out as Senior Wrangler. In 1824 he obtained his fellowship at Trinity. His degree of M. A. was taken […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020

Sir George Biddell Airy, English Astronomer Royal from 1836 till 1881, died on January 2d, after a few months’ illness, in the ninety-first year of his age. A sketch of his life and works up to that time, with a portrait, were given in The Popular Science Monthly for May, 1873. He after that made the preparations for the equipment of the British expedition for the observation of the transit of Venus of 1874, a subject on which he had been engaged since 1836. He retired from his office in the Greenwich Observatory in 1881, after forty-five years of service.

Sir George Biddell Airy, English Astronomer Royal from 1836 till 1881, died on January 2d, after a few months’ illness, in the ninety-first year of his age. A sketch of his life and works up to that time, with a portrait, were given in The Popular Science Monthly for May, 1873. He after that made […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020

Newton pointed out and assigned generally, not only the nature and the magnitude of the periodical forces which are concerned in producing the tides, but likewise indicated their true character as undulations, in one very remarkable proposition, as well as in a special explanation of… the tides of the Port of Batsha. The equilibrium theory of Daniel Bernoulli adopted the first part of Newton’s views but altogether neglected the second. …Professor Airy …has pronounced the theory proposed by La Place in the Mécanique Céleste,—if viewed with reference to the boldness and comprehensive character of its design rather than to the success of its execution—”as one of the most splendid works of the greatest mathematician of the past age.” The problem, however, was not considered by [La Place] in the most general form which it is capable of receiving. He assumed the earth to be entirely covered by water, and its depth to be uniform, at least throughout the same parallel of latitude, and he neglected the resistance both of the particles of the fluid amongst each other, and of that which arises from the irregular surfaces in the channels over which the tide is transmitted. He was consequently obliged to omit the consideration of the tides in canals, rivers, and narrow seas, which constitute some of the most interesting, and by no means the most unmanageable, of the problems which later, and even in some respects more simple, investigations of the oscillations of the sea have brought within the control of analysis. Imperfect, however, as the results of this theory were as it came from the hand of its author, their importance cannot easily be estimated too highly. Dr. Young adopted the general principles which they involved, though he has subjected them to a totally different treatment; and Professor Airy, who has materially simplified the investigations which it contains, by rejecting some conditions which they included, such as the density of the sea, by which they were made needlessly difficult and complicated, has not only verified the more remarkable of the conclusions at which La Place arrived, but has also made important use of his methods in his own theory of waves and tides, which is by far the most complete and comprehensive that has ever yet appeared.

Newton pointed out and assigned generally, not only the nature and the magnitude of the periodical forces which are concerned in producing the tides, but likewise indicated their true character as undulations, in one very remarkable proposition, as well as in a special explanation of… the tides of the Port of Batsha. The equilibrium theory […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020

It is not simply that a clear understanding is acquired of the movements of the great bodies which we regard as the system of the world, but it is that we are introduced to a perception of laws governing the motion of all matter, from the finest particle of dust to the largest planet or sun, with a degree of uniformity and constancy, which otherwise we could hardly have conceived. Astronomy is pre-eminently the science of order.

It is not simply that a clear understanding is acquired of the movements of the great bodies which we regard as the system of the world, but it is that we are introduced to a perception of laws governing the motion of all matter, from the finest particle of dust to the largest planet or […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 15, 2020 | Created on June 15, 2020