English mathematician and astronomer (1801-1892). Autograph letter signed ("G. B. Airy"). Greenwich, London. 8vo. 1 p. on bifolium.
280 €
(91275/BN56122)
A letter addressed to Michael Faraday, FRS, by the seventh Astronomer Royal, G. B Airy, from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, on behalf of his First Assistant Robert Main, who is "extremely desirous of hearing the lecture of tomorrow evening". Airy thus asks Faraday, "Would it be convenient to you to send me a card of admission for him?". - Robert Main (1808-78), elder brother of the mathematician Thomas John Main, graduated in 1834 as sixth wrangler from Queens' College, Cambridge, and served for twenty-five years (1835-60) as First Assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, publishing numerous articles, particularly on stellar and planetary motion, stellar parallax, and the dimensions and shapes of the planets.