Complex sentence: However, despite a number of attempts by scientists to perform this experiment results were largely inconclusive, and it was only accurately performed much later by Hoek in 184x and most precisely by Airy in 1871.
Split into simpler sentences: However, despite a number of attempts by scientists to perform this experiment, early results were largely inconclusive. It was only accurately performed much later by Hoek in 184x and most precisely by Airy in 1871.