George Biddell Airy
George Biddell Airey (1801-1892) was a English scientist who was astronomer royal from 1835 to 1881.
1801 George Biddell Airy was born on 27 July, Alnwick, Northumberland. He eldest of the four children of William Airy (1749–1827), of Luddington in Lincolnshire, and Ann (nee Biddell, who died in 1841), who was originally from Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk.
1811 Airy took first place in Byatt Walker's school at Colchester.
1814-19 Airy attended the grammar school at Colchester, where he was noted for his memory, repeating at one examination 1394 lines of Latin verse.
1819 He was sent to Cambridge, and entered Trinity College in October.
1822 He took a scholarship.
1823 Airy graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge.
1824 He was elected to a fellowship of his college in October, and became assistant mathematical tutor. He delivered lectures, took pupils, and pursued original scientific investigation.
1826 He became Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge. His Mathematical Tracts on Physical Astronomy was published and it immediately became a textbook in the university.
1827 Airy made the first successful attempt to correct astigmatism in the human eye by use of a cylindrical eyeglass lens. (He did this on his own eye). He also contributed to the study of interference fringes. The Airy Disk, the central spot of light in the diffraction pattern of a point light source, is named after him.
1828 He then became Plumian professor of astronomy and director of the Cambridge observatory.
1830 Married Richarda Smith in Edensor, Derbyshire[1]
1835 He was appointed the seventh Astronomer Royal, (director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory), a post he would hold for more than 45 years. He reorganized the Greenwich observatory,installed new apparatus and modernized the observatory's system of making exact and precise observations on stellar positioning. He was highly influential in the British scientific community and was against any support from the government. He fervently believed that private individuals and institutions were better at research.
1842 George Biddel Airy M.A., F.R.S., Astronomer Royal, of Greenwich, became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.[2]
1854 He measured gravity by swinging the same pendulum at the top and bottom of a deep mine and thus computed the mean density of the Earth.
c1855 Airy was also the first to forward the theory that the bases of mountain ranges must be of lower density, proportional to their height, in order to maintain isostatic equilibrium.
1872 He was knighted in June.
1877 The Albert Medal of the Society of Arts has been presented to George B. Airy for eminent services rendered to commerce by his researches in nautical astromony and in magnetism and by his improvements in the applications of the mariners compass to the navigation of iron ships.[3].
1892 January 2nd. Died at Greenwich, London.[4]
1892 Obituary [5]
GEORCE BIDDELL AIRY was born on the 27th of July, 1801, and died on the 2nd of January, 1892. His father was a Lincoln- shire man, and his mother a member of the well-known family of Biddell of Suffolk, but he was born at Alnwick in Northumberland, where his father (who was connected with the Inland Revenue Department) happened to be stationed at the time. He was educated chiefly at the Colchester Grammar School, and a great part of his time was spent with his uncle at Playford, near Ipswich. At this village Thomas Clarkson, the friend of slaves,” resided. He was much struck by the ability and practical mind of the boy; and it was mainly due to his earnest advice that young Airy was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge.
His college career was very brilliant, and he came out as Senior Wrangler in 1823. He was elected Lucasian Professor in 1826, and delivered an annual course of lectures on Experimental Physics which made a great impression on all who attended them. In 1828 he was elected Plumian Professor of Astronomy, in virtue of which he became Director of the Cam- bridge Observatory. He had already written various important treatises on Gravitational Astronomy, such as “The Lunar and Planetary Theories,” “The Figure of the Earth,” &C.; he now turned his attention to the practical working of an observatory, and introduced improvements of the highest value in the reduction and publication of observations.
In 1830 he married a daughter of the Rev. Richard Smith of Edensor, Derbyshire. Mr. Airy was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1835, which post he held until 1881. Under his energetic management every department of the Observatory at Greenwich was wholly re-organized. The methods which had been found so efficient at Cambridge were adopted, and the observations were reduced and published with unvarying punctuality. He designed and introduced new instruments far superior to the old ones in power and in mechanical construction. A magnetic observatory was es-tablished, and magnetical and meteorological observations were recorded daily. A vast work of great importance to astronomy, viz., the reduction of the Greenwich observations of the moon and planets, which had accumulated since 1750, and which in unreduced condition were totally useless to astronomers, was undertaken and completed after many years’ labour. In addition to his regular routine work, he observed the total eclipses of 1842, 1851 and 1860, and organized the British expeditions for the observations of the Transit of Venus in 1874.
In 1854 he determined the mean density of the earth by pendulum experiments in the Harton coal pit, thus at last accomplishing the object which he had attempted in a mine in Cornwall in 1818, but had failed to carry out by reason of an accident in the working of the pit. Throughout his long tenure of office Mr. Airy was regarded by the Government as its chief scientific adviser, and was frequently consulted. He was one of the members of the Railway Gauge Commission. He was Chairman of the Commission for re- establishing the Standards of Length and Weight, after the destruction of the old standards by fire, and on various occasions rendered much service to the Standards Department of the Board of Trade. He investigated very exhaustively the cause of the disturbance of the compass in iron ships, and applied efficient remedies. He instructed the officers charged with the duty of setting out the boundary between Canada and the United States, so far as the astronomical observations were concerned. He reported on the cause of the alleged inefficiency of the light in English lighthouses, and on many other matters. He was extremely well versed in optics and mechanics, both theoretically and practically, and this knowledge stood him in good stead in the design of the new instruments required for the Observatory, and of the buildings to contain them. He took great interest in all important engineering works, and from his remarkable know- ledge of the principles and theory of construction, and of the strains in ironwork, he was often consulted by Stephenson, Brunel, and other engineers, as to the great works upon which they were engaged.
Mr. Airy was elected an Honorary Member of the Institution on the 28th of June, 1842. He occasionally attended the meetings between the years 1852 and 1877, and spoke on the Papers under discussion. In April, 1858, he addressed to the Institution a Communication entitled ‘‘ Further Observations, Explanatory of former Remarks, on the Submerging of Telegraph Cables.” l Again in 1867 he contributed a Paper “On the Use of the Suspension Bridge with Stiffened Roadway, for Railway and for which he was awarded a Telford medal. And in 1881 he presented an elaborate set of tables of “ Logarithms of the Values of all Vulgar Fractions, with Numerator and Denominator not exceeding 100, arranged in order of Magnitude.” His treatises and writings were very numerous, for any subject which had a distinctly practical object, and could be advanced by mathematical investigation, possessed interest for him. His chief separate publications were the Mathematical Tracts,” chiefly on the lunar and planetary theories and on the undulatory theory of light ; the treatise entitled Gravitation ; ” an article on tides; the Ipswich lectures on Astronomy ; and treatises on Sound, Magnetism, and Errors of Observation. But he contributed many valuable Papers to the Transactions of the Royal Society; the one, perhaps, which attracted most attention amongst astronomers being that on The Inequality of long Period in the Motions of the Earth and Venus.” His connection with the Royal Astronomical Society was very close, nearly all his Papers on purely astronomical matters being communicated to that society. He occasionally contributed articles on miscellaneous subjects to various newspapers and journals. Most of these, and amongst them The Landing of Julius Caesar in Britain,” were published in the Athenzum.
Mr. Airy was a Fellow of the Royal Society (of which he was President from 1871 to 1873), a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (of which he was several times President), and a member of various other learned societies; he was also a Corresponding Member of the Institute of France. He received numerous medals and marks of distinction in recognition of his services to astronomy and science, and was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1872. But of all the honours he received, there was none he valued so much as the Freedom of the City of London, which was presented to him in 1875; the special grounds of this honour were the practical nature of the work he had done, and in particular his valuable investigation and correction of the errors of the compass in iron ships. The chief features of his character were independence of thought and self-reliance, an extremely practical turn of mind, and a remarkable love of order. His practical nature showed itself in everything he did. His mathematics were always directed to some useful and practical end, for he had a positive aversion to mathematical investigations of a purely speculative nature. In carrying out an investigation he always kept his object clearly in view, and made for it in the most direct manner, wholly regardless of what may be termed the elegancies of mathematics. Long arithmetical calculations had no terror for him, so skilful was he in expedients for facilitating them. At the same time he was a keen economiser of labour, and was careful to avoid carrying calculation to a greater degree of accuracy than was necessary for the immediate purpose. His love of order was most singular, and might almost be regarded as the ruling feature of his mind. He looked upon mathematics as the handmaid of order; and in the routine work of the Observatory, whether in general regulations, in the arrangement of documents, or in the reduction of observations, order was carried to its extreme limits. Nr. Airy had a very strong constitution, and his regular habits, both of work and exercise, kept him in good health. His custom was to work in his official room from about nine to two, and to dine about half-past three ; he then worked in the evening, in the same room with his family, from about seven to ten, where his powers of abstraction were remarkable. He was very fond both of the classics and of general literature, and took special interest in antiquarian investigations. His memory was very tenacious, and was stored with abundance of English poetry, which he often referred to as an ever-present relief and comfort to his mind. He was a man of great simplicity of character, combined with strong common sense, and was no- where so happy as in the little country village where he had spent much of his youth and with which he kept up a close connection throughout his life.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Parish records
- ↑ 1842 Institution of Civil Engineers
- ↑ The Engineer 1877/07/27
- ↑ The Engineer 1892/01/08, p033.
- ↑ 1892 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries