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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.
Her mother is suffering from inflammation of the eyes so is unable to reply to his kind letter. Her father had a warm regard for his old friends.
Requests that JH send a few lines for a friend of HK's who is trying to develop a facsimile reproduction system.
Congratulations on the marriage of one of JH's daughters [Maria Sophia]. Well remembers the hours he spent with JH. Has had to struggle for a living. Gives some of his theories on music and light that he will not be able to transmit to print.
Sends a copy of the address of the President of the B.A.A.S. at Birmingham, also an Aylesbury newspaper containing the funeral sermon on Admiral W. H. Smyth. Misses Smyth very much. Hopes JH is well.
Has seen the announcement of the marriage of one of JH's daughters [Maria Sophia] to Henry Hardcastle. Wishes them well, and would like to see them if they are likely to be in that area at all.
JH's son William now lives in Bengal. JH cannot explain why William's membership to Amateur Photographic Association is unpaid. Will notify William in JH's next letter.
Resolution reappointing JH and others to examine K. L. C. Rümker's astronomical observations in southern hemisphere and determine if these should be published.
Resolution reappointing JH and others to Lunar Committee to continue mapping surface of moon.
Resolution reappointing JH and others to Balloon Committee for further experiments.
Passes along a report that someone took a 4-foot telescope to the top of Snowdon [mountain], from where he could see the eight satellites of Saturn and the rings of Neptune.
A French civil engineer having proposed in the previous issue of the IO the idea of supporting roofs on the principle of the suspension bridge, JH reports that JH came up with this idea in 1836 and provides a sketch of such that JH made in that year.
Thanks JH for his expressions of goodwill and friendship. Asks for introductions to JH's friends in Cambridge.
Apologizes for JH not getting copy of vol. 3 of BP's Infinitesimal Calculus. Promises to send one. Hopes to add another volume. Asks JH about some problems in probability theory.
Sends, for JH's signature, request from daughter of the late W. R. Hamilton for continuance of Hamilton's pension.
JH's daughter Maria is getting married. JH has been ill. The Iliad translation is almost finished.
Thanks AS for his letter. Offers congratulations to newly married Maria Herschel. Will be returning to Cambridge to give his 46th course of lectures.
Was in Paris when JH's letter arrived. Will print JH's article. Asks if there are changes to be made. Discusses future project Physique sociale, which will include theory of probability applied to ethics and political science.
Asks JH to send memorandum about position of senior clerks at Royal Mint.
Is working on a problem in polarized light, and finds his result disagreeing with F. J. D. Arago's third law; leads JH to think light cannot be undulatory in nature.
Comments on GA's explanations about polarized light, and discusses GA's idea of the nature of light [see GA's 1865-10-18].