Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy

One couldn't call it exciting, but it's a good narrow-focused window into 19th c. British science and the bureaucracy it was involved with. For me personally (a fanatic about precision pendulum clocks) it strongly supported my contention (a non-majority view) that Airy's 1936 paper on "circular error" and "escapement error" is being totally MIS-reported by those who probably haven't even read it. Here's the nub of it: Earlier in 1936 he had had a disastrous experience trying to use both free pendulums and clocks simultaneously on the surface and at 1200 feet down in a mine. He wanted to design a pendulum clock (you have to watch a "free" pendulum literally continuously) which would count seconds which weren't "skewed" by the "impulse." Bottom line: NO pendulum clock with a *flexure* suspension (whatever the escapement) can determine "g" as one with a knife-edge suspension can. 99% of what's online about Airy and escapements is uninformed. They should buy this book. (Most of the book is indeed "autobiography." In later life he didn't keep thorough notes, so that part is written (in the 3rd person) by his son; which is appropriately made clear. Obviously a bit hagiographic but a good insight into a minor scientist who was a first rate public servant. By the way, his optical work got its start with the fact of his having terrible astigmatism in one eye, and his efforts to correct that with a "cylinder" component to eyeglass lens.

The autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy is currently the most thorough book on the subject. It makes accurate use of archival materials and is a good historical reference.