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Verrier, Urbain Jean Joseph Le (1811-1877) astronomer
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Letter from John Herschel
Letter from John Herschel
Add. MS a/207/70 · Item · 29 Dec. 1846
Part of Additional Manuscripts a

Collingwood - JH gives his reasons why WW should not, as has been reported, pledge such a strong declaration of support for John C Adams's and the 'discovery' of Neptune over [Urbain J. J.] Le Verrier: If the results of the latter had not 'appeared I think it by no means improbable that Challis might actually never have turned a telescope to the heavens in search of it at all'.
Letter from George Airy
Letter from George Airy
Add. MS a/200/145 · Item · 10 Oct. 1859
Part of Additional Manuscripts a

Royal Observatory Greenwich - WW needs to amend the date with regard to the Sheepshanks Exhibition [for background see GA to WW, 30 Sept., 1856]. Le Verrier's [Urbain J. J. Leverrier] 'speculation is a fair one [see GA to WW, 4 Oct. 1859]: but it almost excludes explanation of another matter which he thought he had established, namely the retardation of mean motion of Mercury'.
Letter from George Airy
Letter from George Airy
Add. MS a/200/143 · Item · 4 Oct. 1859
Part of Additional Manuscripts a

Flamsteed House, Greenwich - Further to his paper on the Roots of Equations, GA would be happy to pay the Cambridge Philosophical Society for the printing of it. In Aberdeen, as Robert Willis can confirm, GA placed his 'opinion in opposition to that of all fashionable engineers as to the effect of the tides in tidal harbours'. GA is pleased he did not go to Balmoral: 'It seems as if the Queen was haughty and in a pet, and the Prince was weak. Heaven defend us from such associations!' GA has not heard of Le Verrier's [Urbain J. J. Le Verrier] belief that 'a little planet is to account for the movements of Mercury - can WW give him the reference?
Letter from George Airy
Letter from George Airy
Add. MS a/200/118 · Item · 13 Apr. 1857
Part of Additional Manuscripts a

Further to Le Verrier's principle, that France ought to be in the first rank in observations as well as every thing else, GA thinks his 'bold talk is admirable' - but he does not agree: 'The Greenwich Observatory has grown up like the British Constitution under pressure of circumstances, and has thus adapted itself to the genius of the people, and is likely to receive permanent support under circumstances in which a French observatory would not receive much support. I can abandon such showy things as discovering comets and planets, and can therefore do the dull meridian work surprisingly well, and this is known to and approved by the astronomical public of England but it would not do in France'. However the mathematical and astronomical parts of Le Verrier's Annales are admirable and should be adopted 'as the authorised exposition of modern astronomy (Lunar Theory excepted)'
Letter from Augustus De Morgan
Add. MS a/202/114 · Item · 20 Apr. 1849
Part of Additional Manuscripts a

7 Camden St. & T. - The spoon is a good representation of inductive logic. Whewell's notion of induction contains more than logic. Spoon feeding is synthetical (induction) and knife and fork feeding is analytical. Whewell will probably see a scene at the Astronomical Society as Jerwood, who accused Airy and Le Verrier of conspiring to defraud Adams [regarding the discovery of Neptune], has been proposed as a fellow. He describes his friend [Joshua Ryland] Marshman's suitability for the Professorship of Law at Cambridge.
Letter from Henry Holland
Add. MS a/206/106 · Item · 14 Dec. [1846]
Part of Additional Manuscripts a

2 Brook Street - HH is extremely glad WW is to publicly support John Couch Adams's claim to have discovered the new planet [Neptune] - as opposed to Urbain Jean Le Verrier: 'It is clear to me after reading the three papers produced at the astronomical society, that Adams would be precisely where Leverrier's now is, had the observations early in August ripened into actual discovery of the nature of the body, actually seen then by the guidance of Adam's calculations. Arago [Francois Arago] is moving heaven and earth (the phrase is not inappropriate here) to fix Leverrier's name upon it'. The planet's name should be taken from mythology.