This work contains some material on electricity. There are also 14 plates, representing the essential elements of mathematics, physics, and cosmography.

The collection is divided into two series. The first contains disparate letters from Airy relating to his publications and his position as Astronomer Royal of England, with mentions of topics such as: electrical experiments, magnets, Observatoire de Paris, stars, and telescopes. Correspondents in this series include: Edward Wedlake Brayley, James Challis, Alexander S. Herschel, Balfour Stewart, Septimus Tebay, John Washington. The second series features a group of documents put together by George May of the Harton Colliery at South Shields (1889) relating to Airy's pendulum experiments at Harton Pit in 1854 to measure the density of the earth.

The papers of the Italian natural philosopher and electrician, Giambatista Beccaria (1716-1781) contain letters to Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Banks, Laura Bassi, Gian Francesco Cigna, and others on a variety of scientific topics, including atmospheric and terrestrial electricity, the aurora borealis, earthquakes, meteorology, and phosphorescence. In addition to Beccaria's epistolary essays, the collection includes several journals of meteorological observations and notes for Giovanni Eandi's biography of Beccaria.