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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.
Sends directions for chrome solution and the magnetic apparatus and instructions for its use, as requested [in WS's 1826-8-2]. Discusses experiments with magnets.
Invites the Somervilles to dinner the following week.
JH was in Isle of Wight and did not receive dinner invitation. Apologizes for not coming. Asks when Mrs. Somerville's book [Mechanism of the Heavens] will be published.
Discusses feelings about offer of knighthood. Is ambivalent. Praises the Chancellor's [Henry Brougham's] interest in science.
Will not oppose the the wishes of the Chancellor [Henry Brougham] concerning JH being knighted, especially if this might benefit science. Will visit Chancellor to thank him.
Has written the Chancellor [Henry Brougham] to accept the knighthood offered him. Sent observations from Monte Rosa to Lord Minto. Thanks WS for his help with the Chancellor.
Asks WS to forward enclosed note to Professor Schlegel. Disappointed that his celestial mechanics lecture [review] did not appear in last issue of the Quarterly Review.
Will write [J.-B.] Biot, but does not know to which enquiries Biot wishes JH to respond. Also wants to thank Biot for his kindness. S.-D. Poisson in a statement before the Académie des sciences has misdescribed JH's planned voyage.
Has received payment from [John] Murray [for review of Mary Somerville's Mechanism of the Heavens ?]. Cannot answer Mrs. Somerville's question about poles of maximum cold.
Regrets he will not get to visit Chelsea before departing for the Cape of Good Hope. Sends regards to family.
Glad the government has recognized Mrs. Somerville's work. Discusses the hostility toward natives at the Cape and criticizes actions of colonists. Astronomical observing conditions at Cape are very good.
Kaffirs dispossessed by colonists. Condemns 'Colonial insolence.' Editor John Fairbairn, detested by colonists, exposed this in South African Commercial Advertiser.
Thanks WS for W. H. Wollaston's crystal models and other gifts. Comments on the 'strange and exciting events' that are in progress in political affairs.
Will use rock salt to study heat spots. Discusses views of [Macedonio] Melloni regarding solar heat. If England can avoid the mistakes of her neighbors, she will enjoy a great triumph.