George Airy Biography

George Airy Biography

            George Airy had a family of six, William Airy his father and Ann Biddell his mother. George was born and raised by farmers. He attended Byatt Walker's school at Colchester and his classmates disliked him. George did not let this hold him back, in school he learned arithmetic, double-entry bookkeeping, and the use of the slide rule. At a young age he invented many toys he played with, for example, a pea shooter. Georges uncle Arthur Biddell "helped" George by kidnapping him for George to avoid financial difficulties. George spent six years with his uncle, from 1814 to 1819. With this much time he created a connection with his uncle. He attended Trinity College in 1819. George Airy hoarded documents. He would keep checks, notebooks, diaries, math problems, and about any kind of document. Airy married Miss Smith White while he was touring Derbyshire. He proposed to her six years before marrying her. George was a very smart man and when the Cambridge University became vacant in 1828, he told everyone that he was being paid little, this took the University by storm and he got his salary raised from 200 Euros to 500 Euros. He retired as an astronomer in 1881 and was knighted in 1872. Airy wrote an autobiography about himself and created a lot of documents that we  could follow his entire life by. George was very organized and knew his role and the role played by the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

            John Flamstead gave George a lead to  invent a way to navigate precisely and accurately. He proposed an idea that one could use the stars to navigate safely. This idea was introduced by other countries, and helped merchant fleets travel safely and correctly. George was able to sustain his official career because he knew his place, he didn't upset his masters. He recognized the task ahead and made the Royal Greenwich Observatory into an institution that lead scientific discovery. He stated  to the people that they have done a lot in the lower branches in astronomy but have done nothing in the higher branches of astronomy. George Airy is speculated to have discovered Neptune. Airy supplied all the major participants in this discovery with the data he requested. After a young mathematician came to him unannounced saying that Neptune is real and had to exist for the motions of the other planets. Because of Airy's efficiency in the observatory, he was noted by the government as a prototype of the modern government scientist. Because of this he was able to make very little observations afterwards.

            George was not powerful or built, because of this he started to age and shrink. This was mainly because of an increasing stoop. At age eighty-five his health was great, but his mind took a toll on him. He was not into sports or competitions of any sort, however he was an active walker and could endure a lot of fatigue. He invented the astigmatism with a cylindrical lens. He was inspired to invent this because of his huge curiosity of his eyes. This method is still used today. He also created the numerical lunar theory. This theory consisted of observations of the numerical values of the 320 periodic terms in Delaunay's equations for the moons motions.

            George had many great difficulties, one of them was that he was not a great scientist, but could make great science possible. He drew the British observational astronomy into a cul de sac which took numerous years to retreat from.