Showing 21–40 of 123 items
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.
Needs to know soon if R.S.L. will approve grant to expand JH's catalog of nebulae. Otherwise G. B. Airy will dismiss man employed to do those computations. [JH annotation: Sent similar letter to G. G. Stokes on same date.]
[Rough draft (1p) crossed out, followed by:] Confidential propostion that G. B. Airy submitted to Board of Visitors is inappropriate. Queen's warrant does not empower Board to consider such matters.
Objects to Board of Visitors acting as 'self-constituted Court-Martial' to examine personal conduct of Board's chairman [James South], whom G. B. Airy no longer recognizes as competent. [JH notes that he did not send this letter, but kept it because it gave the reasons behind the shorter form [TxU:H/L-0374], which he preferred.]
Plans to confer with [J. T.] Walker and F. A. T. Winnecke from Pulkovo to learn of Russian pendulum experiments before reporting to R.S.L. council. J. H. Pratt's measurement of polar axis and theory about earth's center of gravity.
Objects to plan to move Royal Observatory to site other than Greenwich, but will defer to G. B. Airy's opinion. JH's deteriorating health.
Comments on a proposed grant to publish T. R. Robinson's Armagh observations.
Extensive comments on the type and construction of telescope to be supplied to Melbourne University.
Supports G. P. Bond of Harvard College for foreign membership of R.S.L.; proposes H. E. Sainte-Claire Deville for the Rumford Medal, for his development of a high temperature laboratory furnace applied to metallurgy and the 'disseverance' of the hydrogen and oxygen of water.
Opposes sending expensive scientific equipment for J. B. N. Hennessey to use in India; suggests instead a variety of useful observations needing to be made, using inexpensive equipment. Discusses son's [Alexander] spectroscope observations of meteors.
Further recommendations regarding useful equipment and observations to be made in India [see JH's 1866-8-11]. Agrees that meteorological experiments there are desirable. Offers JH's son John's experience of India to ES.
In response to ES's 1866-12-6, JH sees no benefit in a great equatorial telescope in India being an itinerant instrument.
Discusses Lord [Henry ] Brougham and his optical papers. Thanks ES for kind remarks regarding JH's son [John?]. Discusses polarization of corona.
Reviews additional work of H. P. Brougham [see JH's 1868-10-1] as has been requested in preparation for an eloge . JH is critical of poorly described and poorly understood work, unrelentingly tied to Isaac Newton's corpuscular ideas.
Comments on the effect of great temperature variations on the speculum of a telescope.
Discusses time intervals for [magnetic] observation. Sorry a change was ever contemplated. Asks that his opinion be sent to [Humphrey] Lloyd and that ES make the final decision on how to proceed.
Encloses [G. B.] Airy's letter, which he thinks should accompany [Humphrey] Lloyd's reply regarding magnetism. Thinks all Physical Committee members must be made aware of new developments.
Discusses term and extra magnetic observations with regard to [Humphrey] Lloyd's letter. Would prefer to keep them separate, but feels no harm will come from keeping them together.
Responds to ES's request for JH's remarks on the mode of registering and printing the actinometer observations.
[Charles] Lyell, [Roderick] Murchison, and JH will speak at B.A.A.S. [T. R.] Robinson should be notified that he will not need to speak at the meeting. Sees few advantages to combining all existing scientific societies into one.
Has discovered a flaw in the theory of actinometer observations. Realizes that JH's actinometer observations at the Cape may be useless and that observations made at Government and East India observatories should be suspended.