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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.
Discusses the question of whether the position of the moon has an influence on weather and whether either JH or his father have made this claim.
Comments on balloon ascent report, photographic paper made with vegetable colors, and the need to provide a polarizing crystal to J. B. Biot.
Heard of WB's bout with typhus. Interest in atmospheric waves should ensure publication of WB's article in Athenaeum. Will write editor on WB's behalf. Awaits completion of atmospheric curves for B.A.A.S. Congratulations on recently acquired office.
Discusses advantages and disadvantages of 24 versus 36 hour series in meteorological observations. R.S.L. officially endorses 24 hours, but AQ should continue 36 hours if best for him. Does not possess the Comptes rendus of French Institute and cannot therefore see No. 413. Will attempt to procure sight of it. Asks AQ to return [P. F.] Verhulst's work to him. Expresses respect for AQ's work. Asks for understanding if JH does not answer every letter promptly.
Thanks HO for his effort on JH's behalf [see JH's 1841-10-10], and then describes some of his photographic experiments.
Arranges a meeting with CW and Edward Sabine to discuss Kew [magnetic] observations.
Wishes not to be re-elected as chair of R.S.L. Physical Committee, feeling that JH's distance from London and other occupations impede Committee's efficiency.
Regarding the advisability of purchasing a patent in the photographic process.
JH replies (to RS:HS 15.389) that neither JH nor his father held that the moon influenced the atmosphere, though JH does connect a full moon with a clear sky. [Eliza] Hamilton, sister of W. R. Hamilton, has published some poetry that is not well known, but deserving. Cannot accept foreign order.
GG's book [Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in the North-West and Western Australia, 2 vols. (London: Boone, 1841)] is creating a sensation in London. Pleased to learn from it of the range of mountains named after JH. Hopes GG will carry out some study into the Aboriginal dialects. Standards of weight and measure should be sent to all Colonies. Important to have a magnetic survey of all colonized and colonizable parts of Australia.