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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.
Sends some specimens of aloes and calocynth with some remarks on them. Also sends some sugar made by evaporating the cane juice under diminished pressure. Inquired from J. Lister regarding the elasticity of hardened steel wire.
Hopes this letter will reach him before his departure for the Cape. Wishes someone in the proper climate would make a study of the best kind of Aloe for medicinal purposes. Encloses letter and plates on this subject and would be pleased if JH would show them to Thomas Maclear. Has not been able to obtain any further information from dichromic persons.
Further regarding the projected portrait of JH by H. W. Pickersgill.
Further comments on the painting of H. W. Pickersgill. Hopes that JH will sit for Pickersgill. Also hopes that JH will attend the Geological Society Anniversary on the fifteenth.
Hopes that JH will accept a copy of JN's work [on the history of astronomy]. Wishes JH all success in his forthcoming mission [to the Cape].
JH is to pursue the matter of acquiring an object glass further [see JH's 1833-7-8], without indicating that it may go to Cambridge Observatory.
Agrees with JH to go direct to the French optician [see JH's 1833-8-9] for a large object glass; HP will provide a telescope with such a lens if G. B. Airy agrees such a large telescope is appropriate to Cambridge Observatory.
Wants JH to negotiate with [R. A.] Cauchoix [see HP's 1833-8-12], keeping HP's name out of the transactions.
The deal has been made [see HP's 1833-9-1] and HP is most grateful for JH's work.
Has translated some of JH's astronomical works, and is asking JH to comment on the accuracy of JP's translation.
Excerpts from a letter to the R.S.L. that accompanied copies of GP's work on lunar theory.
Comments on JH's paper on potash in Annales de chimie. Has observed reaction products in microscope. Concerned over delay in publication by David Brewster of his experimental results in optics and light, especially as WT not convinced of legitimacy of rumored results.
Asks about rumor regarding JH going to Cape. Describes some electrical experiments WT saw at Royal Institution and refers to some WT carried out years earlier.
Asks for seeds and roots of native plants of the Cape. Refers to JH's writings on beating of the heart and comments on some optical experiments of Charles Wheatstone and David Brewster.
Has performed some Newton's rings interference experiments. Asks whether such experiments have already been communicated to the R.S.L.
Trying to understand David Brewster's results on absorption of light in gaseous state, and the dark lines in solar spectrum, the cause of which he misunderstands.
Best wishes to JH on his voyage to the Cape, and comments on what wonders JH may observe there. [Letter largely illegible.]
Notice of Susan White's death.
Formal note and stamp acknowledging receipt of £50 annuity from estate of William Herschel, sent by executor JH, followed by note to JH on arrangements for sending such payments. Asks for news about Stewart family.
Admiralty not able to lend JH any further equipment to take on JH's expedition to the Cape.