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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.
Believes that the operative rays in JH's thermographic process are neither 'calorific' nor 'thermal'.
Some information about Charles Piazzi Smyth. JH needs information about some of RH's photographic paper, which JH has tried but without success.
Was hoping to send him some positive paper, but has been unable to prepare this due to a medical problem. Did make a sheet or two today. Returns some of the specimens JH sent him but would like to keep those made by JH himself.
Sorry to hear RH has been ill; JH sends some photographic examples.
Thanks for RH's paper on mineralogy. JH has explored use of mercury together with iron in photography.
Is grateful for the specimens sent him. Has been carrying out a series of experiments on the Calotype process with extraordinary results, especially the crimson skies. What does he think of the idea of publishing a treatise on 'Light' considered as a chemical agent?
Has been working at [L. F.] Moser's experiments and believes he is wrong in considering latent light as the agent that produces the photographic image. Read a paper last evening on the subject, which will be printed. Has been producing images by the action of heat and electricity and proposes to call this process Thermography.
Was pleased to receive JH's letter and to read that he had really proved the existence of [invisible light?]. One of his students has produced images on copper plates by sulfur fumes. Has just seen Macedoine Melloni's memoir, which is now governed by JH's views.
Sends RH a packet of photographs with a description of each type.
Was very pleased with the specimen JH sent him; it is still in good condition. Has he read [John William] Draper's paper? Comments on some of the points. Outlines some of his own proposed experiments.
Is anxious for some means to be developed to get a measurable quantity [preferably by weight] from the action of a beam of light on a surface. JH has been experimenting in photography with 'flouric' compounds.
Read John William Draper's papers; although he believes that Draper's instruments are inconsistent, JH feels that they are still important because they are measurable. Decries [L. F.] Moser's skepticism of photography's value, calling it a 'blindfolding to some of the most interesting physical relations that have ever been discovered.'
Much indebted for his paper on the influence of the solar spectrum on vegetable colors. Has a series of experiments ready that he hopes will resolve some of his own doubts. Does not like the term J. W. Draper uses for the new rays.
Sends a few samples of plates made by the cyanotype process; they are poor because the sun has not been very strong of late. Comments on this process and wishes JH would make a few experiments with his more perfect apparatus. Inclined to agree with him about the mechanism of the eye.