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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.
Declines WP's invitation to attend Cork B.A.A.S. meeting and afterwards to visit WP and to see his reflecting telescopes. Informs WP that [C. A. von] Steinheil had written JH about a process of 'Electro-gilding' mirrors for telescopes.
Thanks for the deodar seeds sent; accepts JL's offer of some young deodar plants. Needs instructions on planting these. Does JL have a copy of JH's 'On the Action of the Rays of the Solar Spectrum on Vegetable Colours, and on Some New Photographic Processes'?
[Responding to WH's 1843-12-6], JH has written to [William H.] Harvey and, in support of Harvey, to William R. Hamilton at Trinity College, Dublin. Thanks for invitation to visit Kew Gardens.
Discusses his success in growing in England various flowers JH brought back from the Cape.
Comments on confusion between observing comet and zodiacal light. Extensive comments on various materials used in a photographic process where negatives change to positives over long time.
Zodiacal light is a real phenomenon. Further comments on negative to positive process. Questions whether WT can define one cometary orbit with two observations.
Reports where to observe the comet [Great Comet of 1843] just becoming visible.
Reports where to observe the comet [Great Comet of 1843], its head having now become visible.
Reports his observations on the explosion at Dover of 19,000 pounds of gunpowder.
Describes a particularly brilliant aurora, which JH observed from Collingwood on the night of 6 May.
[Replying to remarks by T. R. Robinson reported in Athenaeum, #830 (Sept. 23, 1843), 866-7,] JH argues that William Herschel's 40-foot reflector was not a failure, noting, for example, the discovery by it of the sixth and seventh Saturnian satellites.
Continues the debate with T. R. Robinson [see Athenaeum, #830 (Sept. 23, 1843), 866-7; #831 (Sept. 30, 1843), 884; and #834 (Oct. 21, 1843), 945-6] on the quality of William Herschel's 40-foot reflecting telescope.
Reports observing on 17 March a long, thin cloudy streak that moved with the stars. [P.S. of 18 March concludes the object is a comet [Great Comet of 1843].]
Argues against the view that what JH has taken to be the tail of a comet [Great Comet of 1843] is actually due to the zodiacal light.
Reports that a very prominent comet [Great Comet of 1843] is coming into view.
Gives latest observations of the comet [Great Comet of 1843]. Predicts head will soon be visible.
Reports observations of the comet of March 1843 [Great Comet of 1843] made from India by a Mr. Clerihew, who reported seeing a bifurcation of the comet's tail.
Recounts visit to Collingwood by the novelist Maria Edgeworth. Thanks WW for information on Charles Prichard and his school.
Would she read the enclosed letter and show the passage marked to Mrs. F. M. Wilson. This morning he dispatched to her a book and gloves. Will send the photographs and picture by some other means later.
Encourages AE to consider translating some mathematical works; additional comments on mathematics in general.