George Biddell Airy to Faraday   19 May 1857

1857 May 19

My dear Sir

I took advantage of your kind notice¹, and betook myself to the Trinity Wharf before the commencement of the light, and saw the apparatus pretty well, and then saw the light extremely well, and very good it is.

I have just written to Professor Holmes to the care of Capt. Poulter (which address I suppose will find him), to ask for another inspection of the apparatus, and to suggest that for trial of the light it would be well to direct the beam to the front of the Royal Observatory. The building is the most conspicuous and I believe the most distant within sight of the Trinity Wharf, and there is scarcely a liability to interruption. Moreover, there is something official, scientific, and solemn, in such a reference. - If this pleases you, any advantage might be taken on the Blackwall side for directing various lights simultaneously, and for giving them the motion of revolving lights, and every advantage might be taken of the R. Observatory for yourself and others to see the effect.

I am, my dear Sir, | Yours most truly | G.B. Airy

Professor Faraday