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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.
Sending JH a paper by WW on the nature of induction. Reformulating Aristotle's view. Discusses a proposed Royal Visitation, which WW opposes.
Comments on the Royal Commission on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the possibility, favored at Cambridge, that JH would serve on that committee.
Asks JH's opinion of an anonymous book [WW's Of the Plurality of Worlds: An Essay]. Describes it written 'very fairly' but as presenting views very different from JH's.
Approves G. B. Airy's suggestion concerning magnetic observations.
Expresses his views, generally supportive, on the question of the continuation of magnetic observations at various colonial stations.
Comments briefly on the positioning of magnetic observatories. Unsure whether he understands Humphrey Lloyd's proposal.
Has received papers relevant to the Magnetic Committee. Comments on letters by G. B. Airy and Edward Sabine, siding mainly with Airy.
Believes that it is not worth the cost to sustain many permanent magnetic observatories, but a few for a limited time would make sense. Unclear which observatories these should be.
Generally approves of Edward Sabine's plan concerning magnetic observatories.
Asks JH for his impressions of the Aberdeen B.A.A.S. meeting and of U. J. J. Leverrier's claim that there may be an intermercurial planet.
Asks JH about two publications: [Felix Eberty's anonymous] The Stars and the Earth and J. C. Maxwell's theory of compound colors, WW recommending the latter.
Is trying to arrange a magnetic conference during the first few days of other meetings.
Thanks for WW's paper on Aristotle. Discusses the philosophical meaning of the term conception. Mentions a visitation to the universities involving the Royal Commission on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge [on which JH eventually served].
Discusses JH's chemical experiences with sulphuret of lead. Leaves for the continent 'on Monday next.' Has conditionally accepted a position on the Royal Commission on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The publisher [John] Murray wants a new edition of JH's Admiralty Manual. Suggests revisions for WW to make in WW's paper in that volume.
Refers to WW's work on tides and on the mathematics of political economy. Fears that JH's duties [as Master of the Mint] will keep him from science. Has taken a house on Harley St.
Seeks to coordinate WW's and Frederick Beechey's contributions to JH's Admiralty Manual.
Suggests how to reconcile WW's directions for tidal observation with those provided by Frederick Beechey for JH's Admiralty Manual. Thanks WW for and comments on his publication on political economy. Asks WW for views on decimal coinage.
Suggests revisions WW should make in his paper in the 2nd ed. of JH's Admiralty Manual so as to make it more consistent with Frederick Beechey's.
Asks approval for proposed changes in WW's revised contribution to JH's Admiralty Manual.