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Barlow returns Whewell's work On the Theory of the Moon and on the Perturbations of the Planets. He is presently engaged on the production of 'a new magnetic chart founded on the most recent observations and as far as possible corrected for the local attraction of vessels and I would be much obliged to you if [you] could give me two copies of your chart of the tides for drawing in my first lines'.

Washington - Whewell's letter of May 5 has arrived: 'When I received your former note on the subject of the tides I wrote at once to correct your misapprehension in reference to tidal observations in connection with the U.S. Coast Survey. I infer from your present note that my letter was not received'. He has done all he can to ensure his observations are valuable since taking charge of the Coast Survey in 1844: 'If I have not done all that was desirable I have done all that was then possible, and I appeal distinctly from the verdict which you have presumed without knowledge of the facts of the case, as to the tidal observations being without value!'

Philadelphia - He is happy to contribute as best he can to the materials Whewell seeks for his book. He has made copies of the tracts on tides which accompanied his note, and intends to distribute copies 'to those who may aid by furnishing observations upon the plan which has been sketched'. He may be able to get the various tide observations 'kept irregularly and at different times, at places on the Atlantic coast of the United States'. Some of the gentlemen of the military service as well as men of science 'may be willing to observe systematically'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Edward Sabine has given Airy a letter from Francis Beaufort to pass to Whewell: 'It seems that the Admiralty of the present day are not so good men of business as some of their predecessors, and a little private action upon them is desirable'. It appears to be the opinion of all concerned that no formal application can be made: 'Therefore will you write at once privately to the Duke of Northumberland. - The Treasury have demanded the Annual Estimates earlier than usual, and there is no time to be lost'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He formally communicated Ross's [James C. Ross] scheme to the Admiralty but received no answer: 'It does not consist of my notions of propriety to go to the Treasury for a matter which must be managed by the Admiralty, unless that Admiralty had given an answer in this shape "We are desirous of doing it, but have no funds"'. That was how he gained funds for the Trigonometrical survey via the Royal Society memorial to the Treasury. He thinks 'it would be best still to operate privately upon the Duke of Northumberland. If any thing is to be done formally, I suppose that Sabine [Edward Sabine] is the right person'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He had Whewell's 'Tide scheme' copied and sent to Francis Beaufort 'to ask if it required nautical corrections'. He has just heard from Beaufort: 'I inclose it. Therefore I send the suggestions to the Secretary of the Admiralty today; and I refer him to you for further correspondence'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Further to Whewell's memorial on tides, the Secretary of the Admiralty requires more details before they approve the plan. Thus could Whewell make out a more precise explanation. It would be prudent to consult a naval man like Francis Beaufort - 'who knows ports, winds, and currents' [see letter 31 Dec. 1851].

Flamsteed House Greenwich - He encloses the Tide Memorial for Whewell's signature: 'I should think that it would be best addressed to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and sent with a letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Further to his last letter and the approval of Whewell's memorial on tides, Airy subsequently sent a paper copy to Lord Rosse at the Royal Society for his approval; 'but I have heard nothing more about it (A non-resident President is a great evil). However, it will come I should think before long'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Whewell's memorial on the tides 'was duly read by me and approved to the best of my judgement, and reserved for the intended meeting of the B.A. Council'. A Council was called without informing Airy: 'Imagine a Seniority Meeting without notice to the Master - so I have pronounced said meeting null and void, and we will have another soon, as soon as I have screwed Henslow and Hooker into shape, who are the most unpractical dogs that I ever met with. The business of the Association will, in fact, be somewhat advanced by this apparent contretemps'. He has had a letter from 'Madeira yesterday. My party seem to be posited comfortably; but with regard to the ultimate success in the main object of the voyage, I have little hope' [see letter 20 Nov. 1851].

Playford near Ipswich - Edward Sabine has told Airy that there should be a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in mid-January: 'The connexion of this with your Tidal proposal is not extremely close, but it suggests to me to ask you how far you have got the whole affair into shape. I do not think it right towards the Government or politic towards ourselves to make application till we know pretty exactly what is to be done, and can thus put them in a state to judge well of the magnitude, duration, and expense of the expedition'. He agrees that the character of the expedition should be exclusively tidal.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - The tide observations Mr Maclear [Thomas Maclear] refers to are 'assuredly observations made at the Cape of Good Hope. Whether they have yet been sent to England, I do not know'. They will be sent to Francis Beaufort and not Airy.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He has been presented with a great correspondence on the observation of tides, involving at least twelve stations selected between Aden and Cape Comorin: 'But how long observations were to be made, at what periods of year, with what meteorological observations these were to be connected, how long and under what regulations the latter were to be made, I cannot make out'. He thinks 'the indication of the nature of the observations' came from Whewell - 'if you could rake up any recollection of the proposed plan...I should be glad to have it. It is partly necessary to guide me in answers respecting the choice and expense of instruments'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - All that Whewell says about the diurnal tide at Plymouth is quite accurate. The gale from the North on Friday 28th was 'the wind which commonly raises the tide'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He does 'not fully understand the case of the Australian diurnal tides. I do not see the difficulty of an inequality both in high and in low water'. He is not to suppose that he is satisfied with the Irish tides beyond the empirical laws: 'The mechanics of a sea are almost desperate. I could not satisfy myself about the facts on the eastern side of the Irish channel, and therefore I inferred from those on the western side as if the evidence on that side applied to the whole'. Airy wishes Whewell would try his 'translatorial hand on Schiller's Graf von Kabsburg'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He will give Whewell notice when he can 'talk over the tide matters'. Regarding 'a theory of the Pacific (or indeed of any sea - especially where the depth is not known) I give it up as desperate. Whether, like the simpler planetary perturbations, it can ever be theorised after the discovery of simple empirical laws, I do not venture to guess'. The magnetic observations are going well: 'there has been terrific disturbance of the magnets (not yet finished) which is well self-registered'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He has written a paper about his left eye and wants to know whether it is too late for this years meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society - 'if it is in time, would you put it in train'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Airy acknowledges a letter Whewell recently sent concerning the Smith's Prize paper: 'As regards the paper and your comments on it, first I was glad to find that you think lightly of [William?] Hopkins's attempt to force in mathematics where [they?] have no business. In my opinion, Hopkins has done more to injure the credit of mathematics than any person that I know. This is the fault of the geologists (who would praise without attempting to understand), and I think, primarily the fault of Sedgwick.. In the next place , I was glad to see a question concerning the mathematical theory of waves. This is a subject which ought, I think, to be in some way brought into the curriculum of the university'. Although he has not yet settled the longitude of Valentia [see letter 2 Nov. 1844], 'I expect it will turn out an excellent work of its kind. We are much more puzzled in making the geodetic computations to compare with it (in large triangles upon a spheroid of assumed dimensions) than in the astronomical and chronometrical part: but after repeated trials I think we have managed to compute round the three sides of a triangle nearly or more than 100 miles each and to return within two or three feet to our starting point. This was to be the criterion of our method'. His paper on Irish tides is being printed. Similarly the printing of the Reduction of the Greenwich Planetary Observations 1750 to 1830 is finished. The reduction of the Greenwich Lunar Observations (1750 to 1830) is in the main finished: 'I am preparing to correct the elements of the Tables: and this I think upon the whole one of the greatest works that has ever been done in Astronomy'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Airy just missed Whewell at York. He has since been with Richarda to Kingstown in Dublin on the first stage of the chronometric project to Valentia: 'The chronometers had already been in oscillation some time, Sheepshanks [Richard Sheepshanks] doing the Astronomical part at Kingstown. For the transmission of the chronometers, I had had to establish a wonderful system of boxes screwed upon railway carriages and in steamboat cabins, all which boxes could be opened by the same keys; and agents were appointed to transfer the chronometers at the proper places'. Airy has marked out all that he intends doing with regard to the Irish tides - 'I have analysed every one of my 1300 tides' and he gives an overview of some of the more 'curious' conclusions he has drawn.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He invites Whewell to dine at 'our visitation Dinner on Saturday June 3 at the Crown & Sceptre'. He also sends copies of papers on the London, Southampton and Norwich tides: 'The great difference in the general phenomena of the Southampton and Norwich tides, and the small difference in the mathematical formulae which represent them, appear to me very remarkable. I cannot at present explain them'. He has not received all his Irish tide observations: 'Till I have received all, I cannot set the reductions regularly a-going, because for certain matters all are to be combined. But I can see, in the tables already drawn out, some curious things'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He wants Whewell to delete the last paragraph of his last letter concerning tides [see letter 6 March 1843]: 'I find on consideration that in the case when the main wave is a forced wave (as in a tidal wave in a canal round the earth) the partial differential equation, upon making the second substitution, will not have that peculiar form which introduces the factor x'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Christie has sent him Belcher's observations at Tahiti: 'The solar tide there from whatever cause, is almost exactly equal to the lunar tide (April & May 1840), & that at quadratures the tide disappears'. He gives his opinion of Whewell's distinction between an unlimited canal and a re-entering canal: 'In the formation of the differential equations there is no difference whatever (the laws of fluids, as regards transmission of pressure and the effect of pressure and external force on motion, applying in both cases to every point of the fluid: and this being all that the differential equations express). In the solution of the differential equations there is no difference except this - that, in the nature of the thing, it is impossible to permit solutions in the reentering canal which are not periodical in the completion of the circuit of the canal. There is however usually no temptation to introduce such, because the expression for the forces (on which the distinctive function in the solution must depend) are necessarily periodic in the completion of the circuit'. He outlines some of the complications involved with the distinctive function (and arbitrary function) and the type of canal.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Whewell is in Augustus De Morgan's 'collection of Authorities for the History of Science...in one of the early pages'. Airy has had a large amount of observations made around Ireland (twenty-eight stations): 'Of course the reduction in the way in which I wish to reduce them will be a formidable work'. Airy gives Cubitt's rule for blowing down chalk [see Airy to Whewell, 24 February 1843]. Whewell is not attaching the names of 'Clairaut, D. Bernoulli, &c...to the proper part of the subject. The equilibrium-theory as a statical theory of quiescent fluid, is very good (the proof of elliptic form &c being excellent, though the mere combination of effects of two bodies and the laws of the compound result are very simple). And I do not call the theory contemptible in itself, but as applied to the tides'. Abstractly the equilibrium theory is very good while Laplace's is only admissable. As applied the equilibrium theory is absurd and Laplace's theory is very imperfect.: 'As to your opinion that Laplace's theory is not in the right direction because it does not at once give limits in longitude, I think that you have not sufficiently considered the order in which all results founded on differential equations proceed'. 'As to the combination of equilibrium theory with that of waves, I repudiate it absolutely... The failure of Laplace's on wave theory is merely one of mathematics and will, I hope, be conquered in time'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He fully understands why Whewell should be so much attached to his own theory on tides. He strongly disagrees with Whewell 'that a fluid always tends to the condition of equilibrium and that this can be made in any way the base of a theory of motion. You would by this treat the theory of common waves (for instance) as that of water having a horizontal surface, and thus annihilate the waves altogether. Indeed I am rather surprised at this doctrine in general. When you come to particular cases, the inconsistency is remarkable. Perhaps the most curious of all the results of Laplace's theory (I mean of course with the unnatural assumption of uniform depth and no dry land) is that of the non-existence of diurnal tides; and this stands irreconcilable with your equilibrium deduction... The cases to which it will apply may be so exceedingly restricted as to be practically useless; (e.g. Laplace's uniform depth, or my canals); nevertheless the theory is so far right: the equilibrium theory could not be right under any restriction...When you say that Laplace's theory gives us no light which the equil. theory had not given before, it seems to me that there is a moral perversion; you think that success founded on false principles is at least as good as failure founded on true principles which are imperfect (in extent, not in truth). I must protest against such a judgement in toto'. He boils down Whewell's promotion of the equilibrium theory to the adverse effects Whewell thinks Laplace's theory would have on Cambridge students: 'I am free to say that the tone of my writings has been given by my vexation at seeing that you in every mathematical case and Lubbock in every case refer solely to the equilibrium theory'. He does not knock cotidal lines - 'they are the greatest advance yet made in systematically representing the observations of ocean tides, but I think them inapplicable in some cases: and especially when the well marked series of waves interfere'. He 'should be glad to lead on some attention to the theory of canal-waves with the conditions applicable to real rivers. First, I do not think that cotidal lines or mean levels can be made accurate till this is done, secondly, theory and observation can be compared to a very great extent here'. They (George and Richarda Airy) went to see a cliff blown down at Dover organised by the engineer, Cubitt. The Herschels also went [see The Illustrated London News, 4 February 1843].

Royal Observatory Greenwich - He sends Whewell the first copy of his Tides and Waves: 'I have hit your theory pretty hard, but not so hard I trust as to hurt you'.

Weymouth - Is in Weymouth on part of his journey of tide observation: 'I have found more than once that a great deal of good is done by going to see with one's own eyes things which other people's words have made mysterious... And it has answered well. The tides appear to be all shallow-water-tides'. Although his theory of tides is in an unfinished state - 'it is in a state which any body else can complete who will take the trouble'. He went to observe the surf at the Chesil Bank at Weymouth: 'The surf is the most majestic thing that I have seen'.