Text Online
From:
Herbert Mayo
To:
Michael Faraday
Date:
10 March 1840
Source of text:
RI MS Conybeare Album, f.34
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Faraday Project
No summary available.
Has received letter and report. Will he consider by Thursday whether to refer the report back to the Committee. Does not think the balloons should be too large. Regarding the sun's effect on climate. Presumes Council cannot alter report.
Having accepted a position teaching in the Government Schools at the Cape of Good Hope, has found himself lacking important information and necessary funds for the impending voyage.
No summary available.
The Treasury awards AS a pension.
Announces King's enrollment as patron of R.A.S. Recalls Danish monarches who promoted astronomy. Praises Altona observatory and work of H. C. Schumacher.
On the preparation of paper to exhibit a thermal spectrum.
Regrets that JH in his address to the R.A.S. should have omitted to mention the names of P. G. le D. Pontecoulant and JL in connection with the calculation of the lunar and planetary perturbations.
Discussion of the geology of Coquimbo, Chile.
JH has apparently insulted JL by crediting JL's colleagues but not JL with improvements in lunar and planetary theory. JH explains how this happened, that JH's good intentions went awry.
Four appointed directors sent to Cape schools. Will leave Slough in two weeks for Collingwood. Laid William Herschel's telescope to rest at Slough.
No summary available.
Sending a paper, compiled from his late father's notes, for an escapement for an astronomical clock. Would be pleased if JH would communicate it to the R.S.L.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Since he last wrote to his father, William Jackson Hooker, JDH has botanised at St Helena, most notable for cryptogams. JDH learnt about the island flora from Chief Justice Wilde & the Military Chaplain Mr Helps, who assisted Tournaut[?] of Dr Thomson's lab. JDH could not find Beatsonia or Mikania. He collected Commidendrum, Melanodendron & Lachanodes. Other noteworthy collections include Trimiris, Roellas & ferns. JDH dries his plant on HMS 'Erebus' by hanging them outside, some have suffered in extreme weather & the conditions of the tropics. His main collecting tools are a leather portfolio & vasculum. Using a microscope JDH draws marine animals, some of which are luminous; mostly Entomostraceous Crustacea, Pyrosoma & Sertulariae. Blainville's ACTINOLOGIE & Edwards' CRUSTACEA are his references for this work. Approaching the Cape of Good Hope JDH first saw floating seaweeds, a submarine forest with an ecosystem of fish, parasites, corals, shells, crustaceans, molluscs, worms, actinia [anemones] etc. He describes the main seaweed, a Laminaria. JDH & Captain Ross work on the marine specimens whilst McCormick is only interested in ornithology & geology so JDH is effectively the voyage naturalist. JDH describes the excitement of every new landfall. He discusses what he will include in his Antarctic Flora. Next the expedition goes to Crozet, Prince Edward Island, Kerguelen's Land, Islands of St. Paul & Amsterdam, New Zealand, then the ice of Antarctica. The artillery officer, Wilmot, will be staying at the Cape. His brother Augustine Wilmot is a medical student at Edinburgh, his father MP for Warwickshire. The HMS 'Terror's' artillery officer, Mr LeFroy, stayed at St Helena. JDH asks for some natural history books & about joining the Linnean Society. He discusses sending specimens home, all should go to the Admiralty. Suggests WJH could exchange plants with Wilde. JDH has received no letters at Simons Bay, the Cape. He will write to his sisters at Camden House.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Comments extensively on the orbits of recent comets.
Thanks for his letter. Will communicate to P. G. le D. Pontecoulant what JH has to say about him. It was certainly unwelcome that JH should omit JL's name when referring to the lunar theory.