WCP5729

Published letter (WCP5729.6589)

[1] [p. 176]

TO PROF. BARRETT1

Broadstone, Wimborne.2 August 10, 1907.

My dear Barrett, — Thanks for your letter, and your friend Prof[essor]. Stroud's.3 I have come to the sad conclusion that it is hopeless to get any mathematician to trouble himself to track out Lowell's4 obscurities and fallacies… So, being driven on to my own resources, I have worked out a mode of estimating (within limits) the temperature of Mars, without any mathematical formulae — and only a little arithmetic.5 I want to know if there is any fallacy in it, and therefore take the liberty of sending it to you, as you are taking your holiday, just to read it over and tell me if you see any flaw in it. I also send my short summary of Lowell's Philosophical Magazine paper,6 so that you can see if my criticism at the end is fair, and whether his words really mean what to me they seem to… — Yours very sincerely, | ALFRED R. WALLACE.

1
Barrett, William Fletcher (1844-1925). British physicist and psychical investigator.
2
Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. ARW lived here from 1902 until his death in 1913. Beccaloni, G. W. 2008. Wallace timeline. The Alfred Russel Wallace Website. < http://wallacefund.info/wallace-timeline> [accessed 29 March 2019]
3
Stroud, Henry (1861-1940). British physicist. Professor of Physics, University of Durham.
4
Lowell, Percival Lawrence (1865-1916). American businessman, author and astronomer.
5
Wallace, A. R. 1907. Is Mars Habitable? A Critical Examination of Professor Percival Lowell's Book "Mars and its canals" with an alternative explanation. London Bombay Calcutta Melbourne: Macmillan and Co., Limited.
6
Lowell, Percival L. 1907. A General Method for Evaluating the Surface-Temperatures of the Planets; with special reference to the Temperature of Mars. London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, LXXIX July: 161-175.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP5729.6589)]

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Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2019-12-17]

Please cite as “WCP5729,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5729