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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.
Is uncertain if he has detected the lightlines on the solar surface to which JH has called attention, but there does seem to be something unusual there. No sun spots are visible just now.
Proposes to travel to visit FH next day to observe the sun with him.
Is puzzled by two apparent contradictions in JH's recent book Familiar Lectures. Are they printer's errors? Was related by marriage with the late Sir John William Lubbock.
Thank you for his letter. There are no misprints or conflicting statements in his Familiar Lectures. Explains the various points.
Outlining a series of experiments based on JH's work on Light.
Sends a pamphlet by a friend of his, Mr. Thornton, on the squaring of the circle; would like JH's opinion on this pamphlet.
Does not think Mr. Thornton's pamphlets solve the problem of squaring the circle as the circle is 3/4 of the circumscribed square. Comments further on these theories.
Please accept his grateful thanks for his comments on Mr. Thornton's squaring of the circle. Will send these comments on to Thornton.
Regrets he was out when JH's son called, but has sent him a card for Saturday. Pleased to hear that JH supports RM over his David Livingstone appeal. Suspects that Livingstone will turn up after a year.
His brother [John H. Nelson] is at Brighton, and may be coming to London soon. Bodily health improves but mental health shows no improvement.
Read JH's letter to his brother and it did not seem to affect him one way or another. Mental health is no better.
Describes problem with spectral lines in telescope while trying to understand William Huggins's results.
Preparing for total eclipse of sun in 1868. Conferred with William Huggins about making spectroscopic analysis of red protuberances. Asks JH's opinion.
Will not apply to government for money to purchase telescope for observing [1868] eclipse. William Huggins believes that larger telescope is needed. Would JH's son [John] make these observations [for R.S.L.]?
Asks JH's opinion on matter of purchase of expensive telescope for solar eclipse (1868) and other observations by William Huggins.
Comments on impossibility of increasing the intrinsic illumination of a source with a telescope; how to obtain the spectrum of red flames of the sun.
Believes that expensive telescope wanted by William Huggins is unnecessary for the intended purposes [see GS's 1867-5-3]; JH offers a telescope of his own to R.S.L.
Agrees reluctantly to write obituary notice of William Whewell; wishes he had been asked earlier.
Sends list of tutors at Trinity College contemporary with William Whewell; comments on telescope needed for eclipse viewing.
Comments on the time needed by JH's son [John] to perform observations requested by R.S.L.; thanks for list of tutors [see GS's 1867-5-13].