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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.
Reports on sending and receiving barometric and magnetic observations. GP's 20 year old daughter is still not married [see GP's 1838-1-6], but GP believes her chances are improving.
Apologizes for having been too busy to sit for a portrait as proposed, thanks HO for his poems, and describes JH's current experiments related to photography.
Received Hobhouse's letter of 27 May with reply from H.E.I.C. board of directors regarding establishment of magnetic observatories in India. D. F. J. Arago recommends additional station on Socotra Island [in Gulf of Aden].
Describes three-year magnetic survey proposed by R.S.L. Asks H.E.I.C. court of directors to provide support for three observing stations: at Madras, at Bombay, and in Himalayas. Humphrey Lloyd will supervise training of observers.
Grieved that J. C. Stewart desires schoolmaster position at Cape of Good Hope. Attests to Stewart's many business talents, and asks HP to find 'more prominent station' for Stewart.
[Extract] Suggests change in proposed distribution [of Cape Results]. Richard Sheepshanks offered to subsidize portrait of JH, to be distributed with complimentary copies [of Cape Results].
Just received RP's Dec. 1837 observations, forwarded from Cape of Good Hope. JH is now president of R.S.L. joint committee of Physics and Meteorology. Meteor shower of 10 Aug. 1839. Describes global magnetic survey conducted on Göttingen Mean Time. Hopes U.S. will join survey. [Enclosure: Printed notice of global magnetic survey, listing participating governments, purposes, and instruments.]
Willing to write to [secretary of state for War and the Colonies, Charles Grant] Lord Glenelg on behalf of JS's application. JH searching for new residence.
Sends letter of recommendation for JS and returns draft of JS's letter to [Charles Grant] Lord Glenelg, with recommended changes. Promise from Glenelg's father to JS's father [A. Stewart] is grounds for JS's application.
[Richard] Jones's view is correct. Will wait to hear what Mr. [Meade?] has to say, before JH writes to Mr. Hodges.
Birth of [Maria Sophia Herschel]. Awaiting JS's news about Bombay. John [Stewart] and Matilda [Grahame] sailed for France yesterday.
Sent WT's specimens to J. B. Biot and F. J. D. Arago in Paris. Developed paper sensitive to heat rays of sun 'beyond the spectrum.' Diagram of three spectra: 'luminous, chemical, and thermic.'
Commends JW's application for Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford [see JW's 1839-3-22]. But it is improper for JH to propose JW unless asked to do so by R.A.S. council.
Transmits a message from J. B. Biot, comments on the Daguerreotype, although WT has not tried it.
Comments on many different processes in photography. Still has not tried the Daguerreotype, although WT has had the equipment for a considerable time.
Will give a paper on fixing the image formed by the camera obscura to R.S.L. and wants to review it with JH first.
JH is indisposed, so WT will come to Slough to review paper [see WT's 1839-1-25]. Asks JH about appropriate curve on lenses for camera obscura for 2-foot focus.
Has received urgent request from Athenaeum to allow them to publish paper on 'Photogenic Drawing' before it is read to R.S.L. in light of announcement of the 'Parisian invention.'
Wants to withhold description of 'developing' process until it is perfected to obviate others using it. Also refers to second process to make 'positive' and 'negative.'
Some comments on JH's light and photography experiments, especially effects of different kinds of glass and fixing with ferrocyanate.