I suspect it's less random connections than being associated with the Royal Society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Everest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

I suspect it's less random connections than being associated with the Royal Society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Everest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Everest says "about 1825, he came to England for two or three years, and made a fast and lifelong friendship with Herschel and with Babbage" and "Everest was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1827". Babbage "was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Herschel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Herschel says in the 18-teens, Herschel "became friends with the mathematicians Charles Babbage and George Peacock" and "in 1821 the Royal Society bestowed upon him the Copley Medal for his mathematical contributions to their Transactions'.