Item 86 - Letter from George Airy

4 pp.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - WW coined the word Altazimuth for the Altitude and Azimuth Instrument, on consideration has he any change to make in it? Can he think of a name which is logical and convenient for another instrument commonly called a Collimater: 'Now the instrument so used is not described as to its characteristic property by this word, it may be used, it is true, for errors of collimation, but its distinguishing property is embedded in the words "inverse-action telescope". Could you invent a word of knowing aspect yet not excessively strange which would express this?'