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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.
Returning to Cookham. Thanks for minerals. Describes shipment of new minerals from Baffin Bay. Expecting another from Rio de la Plata, courtesy of Woodbine Parish [consul-general to Buenos Aires].
Ask Charles Babbage to send tables of logarithms to TY, who will compare them to [Brook] Taylor's. Bets that five errors will be found. Did JH order mountain barometer from [J. F.] Newman? Will inquire about [W. E.] Parry's instruments. Admiralty, not us, should order sextants.
Questions JH's conclusion that Board of Longitude has power to interfere in Admiralty operations. Disagrees that Nautical Almanac errors are serious. Compares them to tables of Charles Hutton, F. X. von Zach, and H. C. Schumacher. When will TY receive Charles Babbage's table?
Invites JH to dinner. Expects Mr. and Mrs. [Andrew?] Spottiswoode and Mr. and Mrs. Beckwith.
[Board of Longitude] must answer to Parliament, not to public opinion. Do not contest the system. Order pocket sextants; they and barometer will be sent to Captain [Richard] Copeland. Knows how JH feels about expenses sent to Edward Sabine, but please write receipt and send it to TY within week. Will write directly to Charles Babbage for tables.
Suggests change in JH's table of refractions. Possible error in John Pond's reductions [illustration].
Comments on a variety of topics about various scientific persons on the Continent, on JH's travels in Europe, on ways to send packets between England and Europe, and on FZ's copy of the Nautical Almanac, which FZ has not yet received. Makes comparisons between his and JH's barometer, offers some comet observations, and talks about the appropriate date for Easter. Awaits JH's double star observations.
Reports on some observations from JS's observatory near Paris and on his contacts with the Paris Observatory. Relays to JH a request from Alexander von Humboldt for barometric observations. Invites JH to visit.
On the eloges of William Herschel being prepared by François Arago and J. B. Fourier. JH's and JS's work on double stars much appreciated among French astronomers. On Alexis Bouvard, Arago, and other French astronomers. On Wilhelm Struve's observations of double stars.
On the transmission of materials between JH and JS. On their joint observations.
Has been making observations as JH requested of the star 70 Ophiuchi. Argues for the accuracy of observations of double stars that JH and JS have made.
Is sending materials to JH. Reports on continued efforts to observe the star 70 Ophiuchi. Has sighted three nebulae that may be unknown to JH.
If you can send a copy of our paper on double stars immediately, it seems certain that the Academy will award a medal for it. Informs JH of most expeditious method of sending same.
Has returned from London. A preprint of JS's and JH's paper on double stars has been delivered to François Arago. Is finding many errata in their paper. Has received a letter from Josef Fraunhofer and the paper [on double stars] of Wilhelm Struve.
The Academy has decided to award JH and JS its astronomy prize for their paper on double stars.
Contacts with Alexis Bouvard and P. S. Laplace. Criticizes an astronomical paper by [Robert] Woodhouse.
Comments negatively on an astronomical paper by Robert Woodhouse. [J. F. A.] Gambert in Marseille has reportedly discovered a comet. Details on the medal to be awarded by the Academy to JH and JS. If, as reported, Wilhelm Struve has come to England, invite him to visit JS in Paris.
JS has received the medals awarded JS and JH by the French Academy for their paper on double stars. Reports on his new work on double stars and his observations of [J. F. A.] Gambert's comet.
Laments the difficulty of transmitting publications between Paris and London. On arrangements to get JH's Lalande Prize medal to JH. JS's recent observations and contacts with Parisian scientists.
On his contacts with French scientists and on their praise for the JH's and JS's catalogue of double stars. Suggests that JH, beset by excessive commitments, cease to devote time to seeing JS's publications through the press. Comments on the personal cost to JS of his devotion to double stars. Remarks on JH's efforts to measure the difference in longitude between the Greenwich and Paris observatories. Data on double stars.