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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.
Some comments on the variation of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, and the geography of Mars.
Comments on why JH gave 239 degrees F as the temperature of space. Geological specimens may be given to the Geological Society or to the Jermyn Street Museum.
Comments on a table of U. J. J. Leverrier on the eccentricities of the earth's orbit.
Further comments on the theory of glacier formation, urging causes beyond merely astronomical ones.
Describes exactly the route JH took to get to the point where he made his drawings of the earth pyramids at Botzen.
Writes to ask for clarification of HL's views on the dispersion of light.
Comments on the preparation of an article on light by JH for publication in Good Words.
Criticizes the manuscript of Mr. Hickson [?] about meteorology, the diameter of the sun, and conditions at the North Pole. JH recommends against publishing the work without considerable editing.
Thanks RM for his interest in a possible position for JH's son Alexander. It now appears that the position will likely go to someone else, but there is so much work to be done in the meteorological office that another person, such as Alexander, would be ideal. Perhaps RM could put in a word for him.
JH's son Alexander is up for membership in the R.A.S., and JH would appreciate RM speaking in favor if the occasion arises. Introduces JH's son John to RM and his wife. Comments on the possibility of still finding [David] Livingstone alive in Africa.
Acknowledgement of order from JH, and clarification of instructions.
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.
Explains, according to the laws of probability, how the arrows should have been distributed on the archery target at St. Leonard's, and compares that with the actual distribution.
A letter from the Secretary of R. S. L. asking JH to review several papers. [Appended is a copy of JH's review in draft form.]
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.
Offers solutions to some of the problems in BP's Infinitesimal Calculus about which BP asked [see BP's 1865-10-28]. Raises a problem in probability theory regarding archery targets for BP.
Sends tributes to memory of her father [Josiah Quincy]. Discusses [James] Grahame and [George] Bond, who both have died. Also mentions Harvard Observatory and American Civil War.
Thanks her for photograph of EQ's late father [Josiah Quincy]. Glad [George] Bond knew he was awarded R.A.S. Medal before his death. Notes the generations of mankind are 'unequal.'