Page:Lectures on Ten British Physicists of the Nineteenth Century.djvu/119

 at that time had fallen into a very inefficient state. He accepted and then they offered him Knighthood, which he declined on the ground of not being wealthy enough. When Airy took charge of the Cambridge Observatory, it had only one instrument—a transit instrument, and no assistant. By the date when he left for Greenwich the University had erected a Mural Circle and a small Equatoreal, and he had induced the Duke of Northumberland—a great patron of science—to purchase and erect what was then the finest equatoreal telescope in England.

At Greenwich Observatory Airy appointed two new assistants, and he speedily introduced his system of order. He introduced thirty printed skeleton forms for observations and computations; procured a copying press; punched four holes in papers and tied them flat in packets and subordinate packets. Later he got from a manufacturer a machine to punch the holes; and his system was an anticipation of the device which is now common in offices. All papers were carefully preserved in their proper place; and in his later years the ruling passion for order was so great, that he took more pains to classify a letter properly than to master its purport. About this time the difficulty of navigating iron ships was pressed on the Government; they asked Airy to make experiments on a ship. He made a series of observations, reduced them, and prepared magnets and iron correctors to neutralize the disturbance mechanically. He was successful in substituting mechanical for tabular correction; but the sluggishness of the large magnet of the compass remained a difficulty. Subsequently Sir William Thomson introduced instead of the large magnet a number of small magnets, and put a patent on it; but Airy got nothing from the Government for solving the main part of the problem. Being a very methodical man Airy kept a diary. Under September 15, 1842 he entered the following: "The Chancellor of the Exchequer asked my opinion on the utility of Babbage's calculating machine, and the propriety of expending further sums of money on it. I replied, entering fully into the matter, and giving my opinion that it was worthless."