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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.
Having heard that HP had expressed pleasure at some of JH's colored photographs, JH sends some more recent ones.
A series of 'resolutions to be proposed as fundamental principles for a reform of the Southern constellations.'
Has received JL's memoir on the tides. JH would like to amalgamate certain portions with a memoir from William Whewell. JH adds some comments on photographic experiments he has made.
Returns, with many thanks, the report of George Everest. Gives adverse comment on the alterations that Everest has made to some of the instruments.
Offers HO a small requiem, which JH's family sung at the beginning of the astronomical year at the memorial of the 40-foot reflector.
Sorry that JH missed RJ at W. H. Fitton's. Offers proposal to modify property taxation procedures to yield 'taxation by payments downward' and to decrease load on poorer classes.
Note on diurnal changes in [magnetic] variation at St. Helena and on estimated cost (£950) of observatory at St. Helena.
Declines the invitation to the annual Hunterian Oration and dinner. Now that JH is moving even farther away from London, he feels he must reluctantly resign as a member of the Trustees of the Hunterian Collection.
Did not vote for RM's friend at the R.S.L. because JH missed the meeting. JH will also miss the next meeting of the Geological Society, as he is returning to Collingwood.
Invites Mr. Wagner at Eton to bring his pupils to Slough to observe an occultation [of Jupiter by the moon?].
Herschelian Telescope Song in English and Latin, translated by [T. I. M.?] Forster into Latin. Requiem of 40-foot reflector sung at New Year's Eve 1839-40.
Letter designed to accompany report of R.S.L. Joint Committee of Physics and Meteorology. Discusses plans for magnetic observatories and for James Ross's expedition.
Reports on William Parson's paper [see RSPT, 130 (1840), 503-] on large mirrors for reflecting telescopes. Suggests omitting comments on William Herschel's mode of polishing, but recommends paper for publication.
Reports on and suggests improvements in but recommends publication of a paper [see RSPT, 130 (1840), 325-] by Robert Hunt on iodine's effect in rendering 'argentine paper' sensitive to light and thus useful for photographic purposes.
On what is to happen at the expiration of a three year period assigned for the undertaking of certain magnetic observations.
On the 'misfortunes & mishaps' of the Aden magnetic observatory and on the proper care of magnetical instruments.
Notice on the 'final laying up' of the Old Telescope, with a 'Requiem of the Forty-Foot Reflector,' sung by JH's family on New Year's Eve.
Reports on and enthusiastically recommends for publication G. B. Airy's paper on light polarity [see RSPT, 130 (1840), 225-], which JH believes contains true explanation for phenomenon of spectra bands.
Requests aid in obtaining materials for experiments, including metal ores.
Regarding communications from Paddington. Gives verses written in honor of the 40-foot telescope. Has some strange results in photographic work.