Sir Nevil Airey Stent (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
astronomerroyal) wrote2013-04-08 10:29 pm
astronomerroyal) wrote2013-04-08 10:29 pm
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OOC: Historical Background on Stent (and George Biddell Airy)
Note: Spoilers for "The Red Planet League" abound.
Sir Nevil Airey Stent was closely modeled on real-life mathematical-astronomer Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-1892). Like Stent, Airy held both the Lucasian and Plumian Professorships at Cambridge, was awarded the Copley Medal, was knighted by Queen Victoria, married a woman known as "one of the great beauties of the age" and was appointed Astronomer Royal. Airy was also an extremely prolific author, with over 600 publications on astronomy, optics, mathematics, Classics, and Biblical history. He quarreled with many of his colleagues--especially Charles Babbage--about the importance of pure mathematics in the physical sciences, and attempted to get Cambridge to eliminate certain mathematical requirements which he viewed as a waste of time and money.
(Unlike Stent, the mathematicians he angered did not drive him insane and/or hire people to pelt him with hellish vampire squid. I suppose there is something to be said for artistic license.)
Airy was also apparently very stubborn, personally overseeing all aspects of domestic life and renovations at Greenwich Observatory, refusing to acknowledge the discoveries of others when they did not fit his research, and spending a great deal of time on the proper terminology for objects in space. Look up Airy and "the Neptune affair" for the closest professional controversy in Airy's life to Stent's problems.
(Although, regrettably, the term "Moonian" seems to be one of Mr. Newman's inventions.)
For more information on Airy, see:
1. Robert Bruen, "Sir George Biddell Airy," in Lucasian Chair (PhD diss., Boston College) available at: http://www.lucasianchair.org/19/airy.html (accessed 10 January 2012).
2.Planetary Feature List: Mars, http://ode.rsl.wustl.edu/mars/map/planetaryfeaturelist.aspx (accessed 10 January
2012).
3. Sir George Biddell Airy, Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896).
4. Allan Chapman, "Porters, watchmen, and the crime of William Sayers: the non-scientific staff of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in Victorian times," in Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 6, no 2 (June 2003): 27-36.
Sir Nevil Airey Stent was closely modeled on real-life mathematical-astronomer Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-1892). Like Stent, Airy held both the Lucasian and Plumian Professorships at Cambridge, was awarded the Copley Medal, was knighted by Queen Victoria, married a woman known as "one of the great beauties of the age" and was appointed Astronomer Royal. Airy was also an extremely prolific author, with over 600 publications on astronomy, optics, mathematics, Classics, and Biblical history. He quarreled with many of his colleagues--especially Charles Babbage--about the importance of pure mathematics in the physical sciences, and attempted to get Cambridge to eliminate certain mathematical requirements which he viewed as a waste of time and money.
(Unlike Stent, the mathematicians he angered did not drive him insane and/or hire people to pelt him with hellish vampire squid. I suppose there is something to be said for artistic license.)
Airy was also apparently very stubborn, personally overseeing all aspects of domestic life and renovations at Greenwich Observatory, refusing to acknowledge the discoveries of others when they did not fit his research, and spending a great deal of time on the proper terminology for objects in space. Look up Airy and "the Neptune affair" for the closest professional controversy in Airy's life to Stent's problems.
(Although, regrettably, the term "Moonian" seems to be one of Mr. Newman's inventions.)
For more information on Airy, see:
1. Robert Bruen, "Sir George Biddell Airy," in Lucasian Chair (PhD diss., Boston College) available at: http://www.lucasianchair.org/19/airy.html (accessed 10 January 2012).
2.Planetary Feature List: Mars, http://ode.rsl.wustl.edu/mars/map/planetaryfeaturelist.aspx (accessed 10 January
2012).
3. Sir George Biddell Airy, Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896).
4. Allan Chapman, "Porters, watchmen, and the crime of William Sayers: the non-scientific staff of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in Victorian times," in Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 6, no 2 (June 2003): 27-36.