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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.
Is grateful for JH's goodness regarding the pyramids. Gives measurements of the pyramids and would be grateful for any comments JH can make regarding the significance of these measurements.
Was grateful for JH's communication and is pleased his catalogue met JH's approval.
Has ordered the instruments for the Van Diemen's Land observatory. Is uncertain regarding the third magnetometer; T. C. Robinson's has not yet been tested. Will order a dip circle from Paris.
Responds positively to HL's 1839-4-17, and adds some additional comments.
Has just done photographic experiments using bromine paper, and is very pleased with them. JH notes in a postscript that he had just received a letter from W. H. Fox Talbot stating that Fox Talbot had just discovered bromine paper as well.
Presents suggestions for improving and extending Land Station observatories. Will study parallax of Alpha1 and Alpha2 Centauri. Government will survey the colony. Quarantine due to measles outbreak. Boers hostile.
This letter will be delivered by Prof. [C. A.?] Jensen of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, a distinguished painter. Would like him to paint a portrait of JH if agreeable.
Agrees to arrangements suggested by JH [see JH's 1839-3-30] regarding publication of JH's Cape Results.
Describes three-year magnetic survey proposed by R.S.L. Asks H.E.I.C. court of directors to provide support for three observing stations: at Madras, at Bombay, and in Himalayas. Humphrey Lloyd will supervise training of observers.
Sends a sample picture fixed by use of iodine [potash].
More photography comments. Problems with use of hyposulfite fixer. Superiority of English over Daguerreotype in being able to make copies.
In R.S.L.'s request to H.E.I.C. court of directors for support for magnetic survey in India, Lord Northampton omitted to stress need for training TJ and other officers in use of special instruments.
Let India Board move at its own pace, and do not call on Lord Northampton. JH will write privately to 'Major J.' to suggest proper training for appointed observers.
Thanks WH for the bulbs, seeds, and a book, which he sent from South Africa. JH describes how well the tubers that JH brought back from South Africa are doing. JH complains about the weather in England. Sends WH a specimen of a plant 'photograph' made with W. H. F. Talbot's newly devised system.
Encloses description of two magnetometers approved by Humphrey Lloyd, and proposes to make these for £70.
Does not have operational telescope. Suggests WS set 1840 as epoch.
Sends extracts of solar spots observations by [E.] Capocci. JR will be in London on his way to Paris. Asks if JH would like to accompany him to an exposition.
About the question of an astronomer for a vacant position at Kew Observatory.
Sends documents with earliest suggestion of Antarctic magnetic variation. Also sends letter from [A. T.] Kupffer. Materials received from [Adolphe] Quetelet, Prague, and Milan. All sent to [Humphrey] Lloyd.
Asks JH if he would like the Meteorological Committee to meet before R.S.L. Council meets. Having received news that the wife of [Thomas] Spring Rice, the person in charge of the fixed observations, is 'dangerously ill,' ES proposes that responsibility of the project be moved to one of the executive departments.