"
1890
From May 17th to 24th he was on an expedition to North Wales, stopping
at Chester, Conway, Carnarvon, Barmouth, and Shrewsbury.--From June
18th to July 24th he was at Playford; and again from Oct. 11th to
Nov. 15th.--In this year his powers greatly failed, and he complained
frequently of mental attacks, weakness of limbs, lassitude, and
failure of sleep. He occupied himself as usual with his books, papers,
and accounts; and read Travels, Biblical History, &c., but nothing
very persistently.
On June 7th he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory.--From
a letter addressed to him by Mr J. Hartnup, of Liverpool Observatory,
it appears that there had grown up in the mercantile world an
impression that very accurate chronometers were not needed for steam
ships, because they were rarely running many days out of sight of
land: and Airy's opinion was requested on this matter. He replied as
follows on Mar. 3rd: "The question proposed in your letter is purely a
practical one. (1) If a ship is _likely_ ever to be two days out of
sight of land, I think that she ought to be furnished with two _good_
chronometers, properly tested. (2) For the proper testing of the rates
of the chronometers, a rating of the chronometers for three or four
days in a meridional observatory is necessary.
Pages:
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582