| Description | Responding to Larmor's request for advice, on behalf of the Royal Society, for a successor to [Arthur Matthew Weld] Downing at the Nautical Almanac Office. Gill believes only two men would be capable, [Andrew Claude de la Cherois] Crommelin, who had already written to him, and [Philip Herbert] Cowell. Both had interviews with Gill and Crommelin admitted that Cowell had the higher competence. Gill gives the substance of his conversation with Cowell on the nature of the office, and also the possible retirement of Sir George Darwin, whose post he might be eligible for. Cowell subsequently wrote to say that superintendence of the Natutical Almanac was his 'proper sphere', preferring it to the Cambridge Professorship. Gill believes that he is an exceptional man for the Almanac post, but helpless in astrometry and therefore quite wrong for Greenwich. The obvious thing is to remove him from there and send him to the Nautical Almanac, rather than promoting the Chief Assistant, Mr. Davis. Gill discusses salary, and thinks that [William Henry Mahoney] Christie concurs with his judgement. |