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The Sir John Herschel Collection
The preparation of the print Calendar of the Correspondence of Sir John Herschel (Michael J. Crowe ed., David R. Dyck and James J. Kevin assoc. eds, Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998, viii + 828 pp) which was funded by the National Science Foundation, took ten years. It was accomplished by a team of seventeen professors, visiting scholars, graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and staff working at the University of Notre Dame.
The first online version of Calendar was created in 2009 by Dr Marvin Bolt and Steven Lucy, working at the Webster Institute of the Adler Planetarium, and it is that data that has now been reformatted for incorporation into Ɛpsilon.
Further information about Herschel, his correspondence, and the editorial method is available online here: http://historydb.adlerplanetarium.org/herschel/?p=intro
No texts of Herschel’s letters are currently available through Ɛpsilon.
Sends Christmas greetings to family. Still has her intellect and is staying busy. Thanks Margaret Brodie Herschel for visiting Agnes [Greig].
Thanks JH for his suggestions for her paper. Will accept any corrections he makes. Sends warm regards to JH and his new wife.
Wants JH to return the last 8-10 pages of her manuscript. She wishes to correct and improve it.
Thanks JH for criticisms of her manuscript. Will outline principles more carefully. Hopes Lady Herschel is 'gaining strength.'
Sends first revised pages [of MS's Mechanism of the Heavens] back for further opinion. Highly respects JH's comments and believes he will be a truthful critic as a friend.
Thanks JH for his communications. Anxious to get into the proof JH criticized. Sends [Joseph] LaGrange's variations of constant quantities.
Offers congratulations on arrival of JH's first child. Thanks him for communicating his thoughts on her manuscript [Mechanism of the Heavens] at such a time.
Sending back part of manuscript [Mechanism of the Heavens] for criticism. Hopes Mrs. Herschel and baby are well.
Sends a method of estimating the variations in the elements of orbits during the perturbations in longitude and distance. Used it in manuscript when examining Saturn and Jupiter.
Asks JH to send the astronomical part of her manuscript [Mechanism of the Heavens] by Mr. Richards on Thursday.
Used a counter spell to keep the moon at a 'due distance.' Her previous computations were careless. Asks JH to return part of her manuscript [Mechanism of the Heavens] for corrections.
Wants to use method of indeterminate coefficients to integrate the differential equations of the planets' perturbations. [Originally written to W. Fairfax.]
Needs advice on integrating equations. Praises JH's book [Prelim. Discourse]. Says James Mackintosh and [Henry] Hallam also praise it. Note from William Somerville, which needs a reply, is enclosed.
Sends preliminary observations that will be prefixed to her book [Mechanism of the Heavens]. Wants JH to make any criticisms of it before it is published.
Commentary on manuscript [Personal Recollections?] that [MS] sent to JH one month ago. Career of scientific learning and domestic happiness will inspire future generations. Suggests publishing it posthumously for greater impact. Corrects passages about Charles Babbage. Gives purpose, history, and membership of each of two Standards committees, one of 1819 and one of 1838. Suggests avoiding topic of bitter controversy over invention of electric telegraph.
Admires her manuscript [Mechanism of the Heavens]. Wishes [P. S.] Laplace would have lived to see it. Notes a problem with the principle of virtual velocity.
Sending papers on actinochemistry (photography). Discusses [James] Forbes's viscosity theory, nebulae of Southern Hemisphere, great refractor at Collegio Romano, and Lord Rosse's telescopes.
Discusses MS's light experiments. JH will present the results to Royal Society. Describes apparatus that may help her. Recently attended a meeting concerning continental magnetics and meteorology.
Has noticed a resemblance between [Alexander von Humboldt's] Kosmos and MS's chapter, 'On Man,' in her manuscript. Advises her to revise. Sends results of observations at the Cape.
JH's new position [Master of Mint] took him by surprise. People seem 'wild' over renewed agitation of Papal aggression issue. Describes the discovery of Saturn's new ring.