Notice on the 'final laying up' of the Old Telescope, with a 'Requiem of the Forty-Foot Reflector,' sung by JH's family on New Year's Eve.
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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.
Notice on the 'final laying up' of the Old Telescope, with a 'Requiem of the Forty-Foot Reflector,' sung by JH's family on New Year's Eve.
Confides that the past year has been 'a sombre one ... but not unhappy.'
Requests autographed copy of WH's sister's poems, wanting to send them to an acquaintance who translated some of JH's work. Expresses a theory about cause and effect. Mentions minutes of Royal Irish Academy, a reform of the constellations, and WH's three axes of the universe.
Considering motion as a 'successive excitement of powers.'
On mode of conveyance of WH's sister's verses and the autographs for JH's acquaintance.
Thanks JH for JH's translation of Friederich Schiller's poem 'The Walk.'
Has been delayed in congratulating WH on pension by a delightful visit from Maria Edgeworth. Praises highly verses sent by WH's sister to Lady Herschel.
Highly recommends a [William H.] Harvey (formerly Government Treasurer at the Cape) for the professorship of botany at Dublin.
Jokes about WH's recent 'astronomical insignificance.'
Sends copies of three letters by G. B. Airy on proposed railway through Greenwich Park. Asks JH's opinion on possible effects on observatory.
Returns two papers, which had been missent, thus preventing JH from communicating them at a meeting.
WH's theorems on ellipsoids are new to JH, but JH is unfamiliar with the field, so they may not actually be new. Wishes to master mathematics. Still working on Cape observations. Believes Neptune was almost an English discovery, and would have been well-named Minerva.
Elated that WH's account of the generation of an ellipsoid is an original result.
Sends some results concerning undisturbed parabolic motion. Laments the Irish famine.
On WH's 'Hodograph' and theorems of parabolic motion and the relation between velocities, initial velocities, and time. Praises WH's son. Cape Results nearly finished. Revising book on astronomy. Plans to 'attack' quaternions. Mentions parabolic functions and Benjamin Peirce's claim that the discovery of Neptune was accidental.
Sends some new theorems concerning undisturbed parabolic motion; believes that much remains to be discovered in this field.
Seeks London bookselling agent through whom to direct copies of JH's Cape Results for Dublin scientific groups. Discusses pretty names for new planets. Thanks for WH's memoir on quaternions.
Wants WH's quaternion mathematics to be challenged; also worries that quaternions will become merely 'a private and personal skill' instead of a method that can be taught.
The equatorial on the Dublin Observatory dome needs improvement. In the last fifty-two months, WH has seen three new planets: Neptune, Iris, and Flora.
Thanks WH for 'plan' of [asteroid] Iris. Family is happy to have WH's son (JH's son William's friend) with them for holidays. Recounts their playful and adventurous activities.