Item 46 - Letter from George Airy

3 pp.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - GA returns Emy's [A.R. Emy, Du Movement des Ondes et des Travaux Hydrauliques Maritimes, 1831] and Brémontier's treatises on waves and sea-works: 'I have not found much in them that suited my purpose, but they are curious as shewing the efforts which hard-headed men have made, without adequate mathematics, to understand a subject which (as I am more and more convinced by increased reading) cannot be touched at all without a beginning of good mathematics, although the advance which the best mathematics can make is small'. Could WW help GA with 'one of my carnal wants', and remind Mr Clayton of GA's request for a supply of strong and mild ale.