equatoreally. South was not satisfied with the work, and refused to pay, and a lawsuit followed in which the English astronomers of the day were called on as expert witnesses. Airy and Sheepshanks were on the side of the contractors; Babbage on the side of South. The court appointed an arbitrator, who decided against South; whereupon he dismantled the telescope and issued the following notice:
OBSERVATORY, KENSINGTON
To shyock toymakers, smokejack makers, mock coin makers, etc. Several hundred weights of brass etc., being the metal of the great equatoreal instrument made for the Kensington Observatory by Messrs. Troughton & Simms, are to be sold by hand on the premises; the wooden polar axis of which, by the same artists, with its botchings cobbled up by their assistants, Mr. Airy and the Rev. R. Sheepshanks, was purchased by divers vendors of old clothes, and dealers in dead cows and horses, with the exception of a fragment of mahogany specially reserved at the request of several distinguished philosophers, on account of the great anxiety expressed by foreign astronomers to possess them, was converted into snuff boxes as a souvenir piquant of the state of the art of astronomical instrument making in England during the nineteenth century.
This dispute occasioned by one who eventually proved to be insane, led to much quarreling among the astronomical scientists of the day. De Morgan as a friend of Airy and Sheepshanks was publicly insulted by South, and on asking an explanation from him received what was virtually a challenge to a duel. Babbage, on the other hand, by his support of South, inflicted much damage on his own career. South, who was on the board of visitors, attacked Airy's administration of the observatory in public.
In 1835 Airy received an exceptional favor from the British Government; a pension of £300 was settled on his wife. Airy was a liberal, the Government conservative. No personal or political obligation was imposed; it was given avowedly as an encouragement to science. Later in this year a liberal Government came into power; they offered him the appointment of astronomer royal at the Greenwich Observatory, which
