The greatest addition made to the equipment of the Observatory in Airy's day was the erection of the 123/4-inch Merz equatorial, which proved of great service when spectroscopy became a department of the Observatory.
THE SOUTH-EAST TOWER.
(From a photograph by Mr. Lacey.)
So strong and gifted a man as Airy was bound to make enemies, and at different times of his life bitter attacks were made on him from one quarter or another. One of these, curiously enough, was from Sir James South, the man who, as he said, first introduced him to practical astronomy. Later came the discovery of Neptune, and Airy was subjected to much bitter criticism, since, as it appeared on the surface, it was owing to his supineness that Adams missed being held the sole discoverer of the new planet, and narrowly missed all credit for it altogether. Last of all was the vehement attack made upon him by Richard Anthony Proctor, in connection with his preparations for the transit of Venus. All such attacks, however, simply realized the old fable of the viper and the file. Attacks which would have agonized Flamsteed's every nerve, and have called forth full and dignified rejoinders from Maskelyne, were absolutely and entirely disregarded by Airy. He had done his duty, and in his own estimation—and, it should be added, in the estimation of those best qualified to judge—had done it well. He was perfectly satisfied with himself, and what other people thought or said about him influenced him no more than the opinions of the inhabitants of Saturn.
But great as Airy was, he had the defects of his qualities, and some of these were serious. His love of method and order was often carried to an absurd extreme, and much of the time of one of the greatest intellects of the century was often devoted to doing what a boy at fifteen shillings a week could have done as well, or better. The story has often been told, and it is exactly typical of him, that on one occasion he devoted an entire afternoon to himself labelling a number of wooden cases 'empty,' it so happening that the routine of the establishment kept every one else engaged at the time. His friend Dr. Morgan jocularly said that if Airy wiped his pen on a piece of blotting-paper he would duly endorse the blotting-paper with the date and particulars of its use, and file it away amongst his papers. His mind had that consummate grasp of detail which is characteristic of great organizers, but the details acquired for him an importance almost equal to the great principles, and the statement that he had put a new pane of glass into a window would figure as prominently in his annual report to the Board of Visitors as the construction of the new transit circle. His son remarks of him that 'in his last days he seemed to be more anxious to put letters which he received into their proper place for reference than even to master their contents,' his system having grown with him from being a means to an end, to becoming the end itself.
So, too, his regulation of his subordinates was, especially in his earlier days, despotic in the extreme—despotic to an extent which would scarcely be tolerated in the present day, and which was the cause of not a little serious suffering to some of his staff, whom, at that time, he looked upon in the true spirit of Pond, as mere mechanical 'drudges.' For thirty-five years of his administration the salaries of his assistants remained discreditably low, and his treatment of the supernumerary members of his staff would now probably be characterized as 'remorseless sweating.' The unfortunate boys who carried out the computations of the great lunar reductions were kept at their desks from eight in the morning till eight at night, without the slightest intermission, except an hour at midday. As an example of the extreme detail of the oversight which he exercised over his assistants, it may be mentioned that he drew up for each one of those who took part in the Harton Colliery experiment, instructions, telling them by what trains to travel, where to change, and so forth, with the same minuteness that one might for a child who was taking his first journey alone; and he himself packed up soap and towels with the instruments, lest his astronomers should find themselves, in Co. Durham, out of reach of these necessaries of civilization.
A regime so essentially personal may indeed have been necessary after Pond's administration, and to give the Observatory a fresh start. But it would not have been to the advantage of the Observatory, had it become a permanent feature of its administration, as it militated—was almost avowedly intended to militate—against the growth of real zeal and intelligence in the staff, and necessarily occasioned labour and discomfort out of proportion to the results obtained. Fortunately, in Airy's later years, the extension of the work of the Observatory, a slight failing in his own powers, and the efforts he was devoting to the working out of the lunar theory, compelled him to relax something of that microscopic imperiousness which had been the chief characteristic of his rule for so long.
Airy had, in the fullest degree, the true spirit of the public servant; his sense of duty to the State was very high. He was always ready to undertake any duty which he felt to be of public usefulness, and many of these he discharged without fee or reward.
So great an astronomer was necessarily most highly esteemed by astronomers. He was President of the Royal Society for two years; he was five times President of the Royal Astronomical Society, and twice received its gold medal, beside a special testimonial for his reduction of the Greenwich lunar observations. From the Royal Society he received the Copley medal and the Royal medal, beside honorary titles from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. So invaluable a public servant, he received the distinction of a Knight Commandership of the Bath in 1872. He had been repeatedly offered knighthood before, but had not thought it well to receive it. He was in the receipt of decorations also from a great number of foreign countries; for, for many years, he was looked up to, not only by English astronomers, but by scientific men in all countries, as the very head and representative of his science.