Pièce 39 - Letter from George Airy

2 pp.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - WW should translate Littrow's papers [Joseph J. Littrow] and send them to the secretary of the Astronomical Society: 'From the few words of account which you give, I doubt whether their value is great... It has probably this degree of novelty that it is not published; but it is such as any one would hit on in the time of need'. The remark about the ships compasses is curious and new to GA: 'I will ask Fisher (who I think knows more than almost any other person about compasses in ships) whether he has observed it. It is likely enough, theoretically, to be true'. The principal parts of Littrow's history may be put into the speech at the Royal Society.