One
Report was made this year to the Government.--In the matter of Saw
Mills (which had begun in 1842), I had prepared a second set of plans
in 1844, and in this year Mr Nasmyth made a very favourable report on
my plan. A machinist of the Chatham Dock Yard, Sylvester, was set to
work (but not under my immediate command) to make a model: and this
produced so much delay as ultimately to ruin the design.--On Jan. 1st
I was engaged on my Paper 'On the flexure of a uniform bar, supported
by equal pressures at equidistant points.'" (This was probably in
connection with the support of Standards of Length, for the
Commission. Ed.).--In June I attended the Meeting of the British
Association at Cambridge, and on the 20th I gave a Lecture on
Magnetism in the Senate House. The following quotation relating to
this Lecture is taken from a letter by Whewell to his wife (see Life
of William Whewell by Mrs Stair Douglas): "I did not go to the Senate
House yesterday evening. Airy was the performer, and appears to have
outdone himself in his art of giving clearness and simplicity to the
hardest and most complex subjects. He kept the attention of his
audience quite enchained for above two hours, talking about
terrestrial magnetism.
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