Due to poor health of both JH and his wife, Margaret, JH writes to decline an invitation to dinner.
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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.
Due to poor health of both JH and his wife, Margaret, JH writes to decline an invitation to dinner.
Thanks for sending vol. 4 of BP's Infinitesimal Calculus and for earlier sending vols. 1 and 2. Praises parts of vol. 4. Will another volume be forthcoming?
Describes objections to proposed metallic thermometer. Describes another simpler design for a metallic thermometer. Will ask [William] Sykes to consider HR's design.
Has been too ill to write terrestrial magnetism paper for Edinburgh Review. Suggests other people to write it.
Has signed certificate for [W. F.] Hook. [See ES 1861-12-5] Congratulates ES [on presidency of R.S.L.]. JH on B.A.A.S. balloon committee. Proposes design for metallic thermometer.
Pleased ES and [Balfour?] Stewart like plan for metallic thermometer. Suggests way to obviate effect of pendulous movement of the suspended weight.
Advises on the construction of the Melbourne reflecting telescope. Thinks [W. P.] Wilson should come to watch construction.
Has no suggestions to improve photographs. Wants to determine whether the degradation of light from center to edge of sun is 'real.' Does not think sun's size affects focus.
Thanks MS for sympathy letter. Discusses present situation in Italy. Discusses his children and their scattered locations, e.g., a son fighting in the Indigo affair. Discusses his articles for Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Finds JT's work on thermotics 'highly interesting,' although criticizes measurements of 'tenuity' of vapor, and explanation of scattering of sunlight and formation of corona around moon during eclipse.
Discusses the project of erecting a large telescope in the southern hemisphere [Melbourne telescope] for observation of nebulae. Expresses reservations and makes suggestions about the project.
Reply to JT's 'Remarks on Radiation and Absorption.' Calls non-absorption of air and vapor key to understanding meteorological phenomena. Remarks on 'radiant heat' from moon.
Stresses importance for Balloon Committee of obtaining corresponding temperatures and pressures; describes two highly sensitive thermometers that might be built for this purpose.
Thanks for MS's works, communicated through [Picot] Tremblay. Worries that JH has insufficient time and lags behind in the physical sciences. Comments on ideas put forward in 1824 by JH and discussed by MS. Has found MS's name connected with suspension bridge over Rhone River.
Thanks for and comments on paper and lectures on 'diathermancy &c' of gases, scientific teaching, and solar chemistry. Regrets that JT mentioned all names connected with light research except JH's. Remarks on absorption of light, molecular vibrations.
Does not believe surface of moon can radiate cold; perhaps new moon can. Explains this geometrically.
Outlines advantages of erecting great reflector in Melbourne [WW's colony] for observation of southern nebulae.
Encourages GA to develop some experiments to study the electrical phenomenon [see GA's 1861-9-23] more carefully.
Recognizes the validity of GA's claim to the eyepiece theory [see GA's 1861-3-27]; JH did not have space to deal adequately with the subject of telescopes.
Expresses condolences on death of Mary Maclear.