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.
Received news today of JS's arrival in Bombay. Describes conflict as 'Armageddon.' Family news. John Stewart returned from China and leaves soon to meet Matilda [Grahame] in Paris. [Richard] Jones's concern for JS is genuine. Eneas Mackintosh obtained cadetship for JH's son John at Addiscombe.
Describes HJ's formal petition against Stuart Watley's bill for reform of marriage laws.
Thanks for JH's corrections to HJ's formal petition [against marriage reform bill].
Asks for JH's comments on YV's specific double star observations. YV presents the mathematical method he uses to calculate double star orbits, which he had presented to the Paris Académie in 1847, but it was not published.
Has passed YV's memoirs on the calculation of orbits on to G. B. Airy for publication; copies will be sent [see YV's 1849-4-1]. Notes that YV's methods are similar to those of U. J. J. Leverrier.
Is sending a communication to JH for insertion in the R.A.S.M.N. Seems to be some problem with understanding YV's calculations of the orbits of double stars, so YV explains his method.
Thanks JH for his interest in YV's work on double stars. YV sends a copy of a note on double stars published in the Académie des Sciences for consideration by the R.A.S. Raises a problem of agreement between Newtonian theory and observational data. YV feels astronomical studies in France are slowing down.
Thanks JH for a copy of a scientific manual (Admiralty Manual?).
Asks JH's opinion about GA's plan not to print a separate volume of magnetic and meteorological observations for 1848.
WB's latest observations of Gamma Virginis.
Some concerns about GA's intent of attaching magnetic and meteorological observations to the R.A.S.'s Astronomical Observations [see GA's 1849-3-28].
Will reconsider the proposal about printing observations [see JH's 1849-3-29], and get back to JH.
Sends sample of photographic lenses ground by JJ. Asks JH for formula of curvature to admit more light.
Sends note with needed facts [related to JH's early discovery of principle for ice-making machine], plus paragraph that JH may wish to insert [in notice to Athenaeum].
Encloses sequel to AS's volume on electro-biology, which AS dedicated to JH. Both are being translated into French.
Encloses note to be directed to JH, pointing out discrepancies in JH's article on sound in first edition of Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.
Returns a letter from Thomas Maclear to FB, and then JH expresses his concern about the state of health and work of Maclear.
A note expressing JH's thanks for allowing JH to read a letter from Thomas Maclear to FB; JH again expresses his concern for the welfare of Maclear.
JH's article on 'Meteorology' [for the Admiralty Manual] is finished; JH will make some comments on aneroid barometers in the preface.
Identifies the positive features of the aneroid barometer as in use by the Navy.