Culture Break: George Biddell Airy (1801-1892)1 was an English applied
mathematician and astronomer. He worked in optics, celestial mechanics,
and solid mechanics, and, as Astronomer Royal, reorganized the Royal Observatory
at Greenwich. Of Airy’s childhood, O. J. Eggen wrote in the Dictionary
of Scientific Biography:2
An introverted but not shy child, Airy was, even for the time
and especially for his circumstances, a young snob. Nevertheless,
he overcame some of the dislike of his schoolmates by his great
skill and inventiveness in the construction of peashooters and
other such devices.
Airy entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1819. Owing to his modest
means he paid a reduced fee but worked as a servant and took on pupils as a
private tutor. He graduated from Cambridge in 1823 and became Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics in 1826. In 1835 he became Astronomer Royal and
moved from Cambridge to Greenwich. In 1845 he became the President of
the Royal Astronomical Society, He was knighted in 1872.