A letter of introduction asking GA to admit Major Robertson and his sisters to the observatory.
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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.
A letter of introduction asking GA to admit Major Robertson and his sisters to the observatory.
Thanks for sending him his memoir on the Figure of the Earth. Comments on this. His son John would find a copy of this memoir of great assistance in his work in India; would he send him one.
Thanks for a number of items of poetry and sends EC a translation of some poetry by Friedrich Schiller.
Thanks for a collection of poems; comments on lunar eclipses.
About a great meteor seen earlier in the year; JH is slowly translating Homer's Iliad.
Comments on family health; asks AD if he has read James Challis on the topics of the ether and of zodiacal light.
Agrees that the weather is hot. The word theodolite. Where did he obtain his verses by Walter Mapes? Why not come and visit them?
Comments on Greek fire lead JH into a variety of recollections.
[JH's summary of letter] Instructions and corrections relative to data on nebula for JH's catalogue.
Austrian consul, Mr. Schaeffer, sent JH one copy of Voyage of the Navara and map, care of R.A.S. If parcel arrives, send it to Smith, Elder & Co.
Received tables of heights recorded in 'Sind, the Punjab, N.W. Provinces, and Central Asia.' Sees scientific interest in JW's described effect of refraction on levelling. Work is important to irrigation.
Passes on recent reports of good news that daughter Caroline is improving, and that JH's wife, Margaret, survived the journey well. [Margaret went to Dublin to be with Caroline when she became very ill at the birth of her daughter Kathleen.]
Suggestions on improving JB's gravimetric balance, constructed on principle of 'Bifilar suspension.' Refers to 1861 report of similar invention by J. A. Brown and another article on this topic.
Presents eight-volume copy of William Herschel's 'Sweep,' transcribed by late Caroline Herschel. Reviews her career.
Has learned JH has been named to the B.A.A.S. 'Committee of Weights and Measures.' Requests addresses for various members of the committee so that JH can send each a copy of a paper JH published.
Does not personally know any members of the committee [Committee for the Restoration of the Standards] except Prof. [William Hallowes] Miller. Consequently, asks GG to distribute JH's paper 'officially.'
Gives advice on observing and photographing the sun and moon. Invites JN to visit JH.
Has received letter from Lord Palmerston [Henry John Temple] approving JH's request for a memorial for Thomas Maclear.
Saw J. B. N. Hennessey [who had just come from India] at a Greenwich visitation day, but did not have time to speak to him there. JH will invite him to Collingwood.
A short note to comment on photographs son John has sent; also inquires about prospects for the India survey John has discussed.