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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.
Invites ES and his wife [at St. Leonard's] to visit . JH is impressed with ES's ability to develop a working plan for terrestrial magnetism observations. Is prepared to write a review article [about magnetism?] if invited, but JH refuses to write such articles and offer them 'for acceptance or rejection.'
Thanks ES for receipt of information about magnetic curves and the work of [A. D.] Bache. JH is glad to hear ES is back to active work again, but JH says he is too ill to go to the B.A.A.S. meeting [in Aberdeen].
Has incorporated ES's suggestions into the draft report about [the University of] Kasan.
Cannot attend meeting of grant committee tomorrow. Favors grant to print observations made at Armagh Observatory by T. R. Robinson, but with conditions. Protests any grants to public institutions. Mr. Forbes's proposition is too premature to act on it.
Disagreement with W. H. Sykes over whether to publish observations by General [Cullen?] that Sykes claims have never been reviewed or read [to R.S.L.]. Encloses copy of JH's reply to Sykes.
[Extract] Learned that JH was appointed by R.S.L. to committee to cooperate with B.A.A.S. to promote continuance of terrestrial magnetism survey. Asks ES to send committee summary of results already obtained and ES's opinion of how best to conduct future observations.
Returns JH report with one correction, substituting Kazan for North Cape, because [Christopher] Hansteen cannot find Norwegian observers. Will make copies of its final form and take one to B.A.A.S. meeting in Aberdeen. Mr. Bolyani has visited every magnetic observatory in Europe. 1854 was the year of minimum magnetic disturbances in Peking.
Sends Council report to be read next week. Instructed printers Taylor & Francis to accept any changes that JH may request. Sent copies of JH's report to Humphrey Lloyd and G. B. Airy. Gives ES's address in Scotland.
Received series of actinometer observations from [Joseph] Dayman aboard Rattlesnake. JH's trip to Continent. Completion of Francis Ronalds's magnetographs. Improved access to Kew Observatory by railway. Next committee meeting. Bakerian lecture by Michael Faraday.
Replies to specific requests by committee for summary of benefits from research in terrestrial magnetism and meteorology and for ES's opinion on continuance of observatories. [JH annotation: Routing list to G. B. Airy, George Peacock, and William Whewell.]
Sends proofs of editor's notes from vol. 4 of [Elizabeth J. Sabine's] translation of Alexander von Humboldt's] Cosmos. Assumes that JH and magnetic committee members all have copies of 'Introduction' to vol. 3 of Toronto observations. Managed to clear up 'mystification' in J. B. Biot's account of pendulum experiments.
ES's paper on magnetic observatories in colonies is same as 'Introduction' to vol. 3 of Toronto observations. Publisher has delayed [Elizabeth J. Sabine's] translation of vol. 4 of Cosmos; please send JH's copy of 'Editor's Notes' to other members of magnetic committee. J. B. Biot intentionally subordinated English pendulum experiments to French experiments, and Alexander von Humboldt was misled.
Current activities at magnetic observatories at Cape of Good Hope, Hobart [Tasmania], and Toronto. Future avenues for research in terrestrial magnetism include correlation with sunspot cycles, annual seasons, parallels of latitude, and lunar position. Urges establishment of many more observing stations. [JH annotation: Routing list to G. B. Airy, George Peacock, and William Whewell.]
Forwards report, just received, of three years of lunar diurnal variation at Cape of Good Hope. [JH annotation: Routing list to G. B. Airy, George Peacock, and William Whewell.]
Will leave London for several weeks when ES's wife is well. Alexander von Humboldt is pleased with English translation of Cosmos. Preparations for magnetic research in Australia, Bavaria, [British] Guiana, and Mauritius. [JH annotation: Routing list to G. B. Airy, George Peacock, and William Whewell.]
Prospects for making magnetic and meteorological observations at Peking, which is more desirable than Shanghai or Hong Kong. Hopes for popular review of subject in Quarterly [Review].
Forwards latest computations of lunar diurnal variation in horizontal force of terrestrial magnetism at Cape of Good Hope. Describes method used by Archibald Smith to distinguish lunar from terrestrial magnetism.
Sends copy of ES's reply to Richard Owen, who reported Owen's interview with C. E. Trevelyan. Suggests waiting until summer to apply for government funds to support observatories in Peking and Vancouver Island. ES's recent illness.
Received order for self-recording photographic instruments for magnetic observations from Mr. Bolyani, who plans to improve observatory at University of Kazan. ES quoted prices for making these in London and invited Bolyani to inspect observatory at Kew. ES now prefers Shanghai to Peking as site for observatory. Geographic distribution of global observatories. Reading JH's 'Physical Geography' [1859]. Sends two sunspot photographs from Kew.
Asks permission to include JH on R.S.L. committee, headed by C. J. Selwyn (relative of George Peacock) and Dr. Beale, to purchase portrait of Peacock from artist Douglas Blakiston. Self-recording magnetic instruments have reached Washington safely.