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                            AUTOBIOGRAPHY

                                  OF

                   SIR GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY, K.C.B.,

                M.A., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S.,

            HONORARY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
                 ASTRONOMER ROYAL FROM 1836 TO 1881.


                              EDITED BY

                   WILFRID AIRY, B.A., M.Inst.C.E.


                                 1896




PREFACE.

The life of Airy was essentially that of a hard-working, business man,
and differed from that of other hard-working people only in the
quality and variety of his work. It was not an exciting life, but it
was full of interest, and his work brought him into close relations
with many scientific men, and with many men high in the State. His
real business life commenced after he became Astronomer Royal, and
from that time forward, during the 46 years that he remained in
office, he was so entirely wrapped up in the duties of his post that
the history of the Observatory is the history of his life. For writing
his business life there is abundant material, for he preserved all his
correspondence, and the chief sources of information are as follows:

    (1) His Autobiography.
    (2) His Annual Reports to the Board of Visitors.
    (3) His printed Papers entitled "Papers by G.B. Airy."
    (4) His miscellaneous private correspondence.
    (5) His letters to his wife.
    (6) His business correspondence.

(1) His Autobiography, after the time that he became Astronomer Royal,
is, as might be expected, mainly a record of the scientific