Affichage de 4235 résultats

London - FB sends WW a copy of his Supplement to Flamsteed [Supplement to the Account of the Rev. John Flamsteed, 1837].

90 Eaton Square - WW's parcel for Mr Everett [Edward Everett] should be with him by the 18th. GB gives a brief description of his continental trip.

London - 'Alas! for human nature that there should be such a tale to be told! but the French inhabitants of Acadie were transplanted like the Jews from Judaea' [the forced expulsion of these people from Nova Scotia under Newcastle's administration in the 18th century]. GB sends WW his account of the events [possibly connected with WW's forthcoming work 'Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie', Fraser's Magazine 37, 1848]. He would have liked to heard WW 'on hypothesis; the a priori pursuit of truth, such when tested at once by facts & experience'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Answers WW's queries: when Newton's 'analysis is carried to perfection (i.e. so as to shew Fraunhoffer's lines), it has certainly developed original properties of light... Their existence in the diffraction spectrum tends most strikingly to confirm this. - You may also say that persons who have tried the experiments with great care do not believe in [David] Brewster's changes of colour. - The changes of colour are certainly the only source of his objections'. The French have always associated Thomas Young with the discovery of the undulating theory of light.

90 Eaton Square - Thanks WW 'for the little gift of the sermon of that one of your divines, whose works I read much in my youth, so that I almost know his Analogy by heart' [WW, 'Butler's Three Sermons on Human Nature', 1848]. Longfellow [Henry Longfellow] was delighted with WW's Evangeline ['Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie', Fraser's Magazine 37, 1848].

1 Upper Belgrave Street - Unfortunately Mrs Bancroft cannot come to Cambridge - is it alright if he comes alone? 'I shall myself be most happy to look under your auspices once more in the face of Bacon & Newton,...& all the wisdom that time & wealth & trust & learning have gathered about Trinity College & its neighbours'.

New York - A letter of introduction for Dr Henry Smith - 'my countryman, who has very much distinguished himself by his intimate acquaintance with moral and metaphysical philosophy & its history'. GB wants to know if Franklin's explanation of 'the phenomena of light by a theory of vibrations had come under your eye?' - since WW does not name him in the prelude to Thomas Young and Augustin Fresnel. He encloses a few sentences from a letter by Franklin [no longer attached].

Edinburgh - Sends WW a copy of his dissertation in which he has attempted to apply the argument advocated in the Bridgewater Treatises to the subject of disease [A Dissertation on the Causes and Effects of Disease, Considered in Reference to the Moral Constitution of Man, 1837, not present].

Royal Institution - Thanks WW on behalf of the Royal Institution 'for your discourse on the idea of Polarity'.

Royal Institution - Thanks WW for the "English Hexameter Translations" from the most eminent Greek & German Poets' ['Dialogues on English Hexameters', from Frasers Magazine, 1847 and 1849]. Michael Faraday has been very unwell.

London - Thanks WW for the copy of his defence of Newton [On Hegel's Criticism of Newton, 1849]: 'From the very little I can pretend to know of philosophical students on this country, I should guess that Hegel's influence is waning'. Further to WW's second memoir on the Fundamental Antithesis: 'No doubt your, most active, intellectual life has produced more important results than that distinction between man's progress as a scientific inquirer and as a moral agent, I certainly never read any thing in my life which struck me as being at once so new, and so suggestive.'

St. Julian's near Sevenoaks - If WW ever gets a thought 'which you could develop agreeably to yourself at one of our evening meetings, I would find a Friday for it at almost any notice'.

JB has received WW's note and will endeavour to fulfill his request [to do with the production of a magnetic chart].

PB returns WW's work On the Theory of the Moon and on the Perturbations of the Planets. PB is presently engaged on the production of 'a new magnetic chart founded on the most recent observations and as far as possible corrected for the local attraction of vessels and I would be much obliged to you if [you] could give me two copies of your chart of the tides for drawing in my first lines'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - The clock for the Northumberland telescope is nearly finished. Could WW get [James] Challis to send to [William] Simms or GA 'the breadth of the hole that is left by the side of the south pier of the polar axis for the clock weights to drop into; as that will determine the construction of our weights'. Could WW ask the President of the Council of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, whether they would present to the library of the Royal Observatory a copy of the Transactions of the Society. This will help bind the links between the Observatory and Cambridge.

Woolwich - Further to WW's steam train enquiry: 'I beg to say that I have not made the comparison you allude to, with the experimental results, because those results involve in them the velocity with which the train reaches the plane, which velocity alone would carry the train some way up the plane without engine powers the experimental speeds therefore are greater than they ought to be for the comparison in question the formula having reference only to the mechanical impediment of the slope. It will of course be observed that although the momentum might actually carry the train to the top of the plane without engine powers - the original velocity has to be acquired again so that this ascent proves no mechanical gain of power. The question of the disadvantage of the plane must therefore rest on its own ground and the way to proceed is to enquire what additional load would on a horizontal plane produce the same resistance as the inclined plane'. PB gives an example of a ratio which accounts for various resistances - such as friction, air and the atmosphere.

Woolwich - The Directors of the South Eastern Railway have asked PB to consult WW on some points concerning 'the mechanical working or advantages of their line of road for about 23 miles - with a view to your examination on the question in both Houses of Parliament - for which they have engaged my assistance also'. The opposition and preferred line is 37 miles but has less planes than the former: 'the question is whether 23 miles or the 37 will employ most power and time'. PB gives a table of the comparative gradients and explains how he obtained his results. The Directors would like to have WW's authority to call upon once the question passes through the Committee.

Woolwich - PB endeavours to answer some of WW's questions relating to steam trains. For instance, 'the effect of slopes upon the velocity of engines "as observed in real practice without reference to any theory". Most - if not all - engineers think that the rapid descent of a train does 'more mischief' that the heavy strain in the ascent. Some engineers assert that the more rapid the speed of a train, the more sharp is the draft. Consequently more fuel is consumed and hence more steam is generated in a given time, which leads to the more rapid destruction of the furnace and boiler. PB found no justification for this assertion in his research done on the Manchester line. The problem with trying to ascertain experimental facts is that 'they are so much at variance with each other that no instant conclusion can be obtained'.

Woolwich - The experiments on the Liverpool line were made at PB's request - 'or rather I should call them observations. I requested simply to be informed of the exact speeds up and down the several planes on the Liverpool line as observed in ordinary journeys with the amount of load, the boiler pressure &c'. However, although PB does not doubt that the observations were carefully made, he finds them very irregular. PB thinks the pressure of the atmosphere on the piston has been hitherto neglected: 'we ought to consider the whole pressure in the bodies and to consider this as opposed not only to the resistance of the load, but to the pressure of the atmosphere which must be overcome with the velocity of the piston - this makes an immense difference on the computed affects'.

PB has made an error in the information he gave WW regarding the expense of coal on the Liverpool line. He shows WW his 'computed horizontal lines equivalent to the several planes according to the account last sent' [see PB to WW, 26 Mar. 1836].

The question PB was mentioning to WW yesterday, concerned the relative propelling powers of the paddles of a steam vessel according to their position. PB's son has produced a paper which 'endeavours to show that the lower or vertical paddle is the least effective whereas the general impression is that it is the most effective'. PB wants WW to look over the solution which he gives, and see if he can spot any errors.

PB explains his comments concerning the effect of iron on a ship's compass. His remark on page 79 was made on the ground of theory and not from actual experiment on ship board [Essay on Magnetic Attractions, 1820?]: 'you will have seen that the distance of the centre of attraction of the iron (speaking at present of balls only) and the relative position of the compass and needle as referred to an imaginary sphere which may be supposed to circumscribe either the ball of iron or the compass, its poles in either case corresponding in position with the magnetic poles of the dipping needle at the place of observation'. PB then provides an example accompanied by diagram and explanation. With regard to the 'accuracy that has been obtained - I have no better authorities on these subjects but what are contained in my supplement' [Appendix Containing an Account of the Experiments Made on Board HMS Lever, Conway and Griper, for Correcting the Local Attraction of these Vessels, 1824?].

Royal Observatory Greenwich - GA sends WW two papers including his piece on Cambridge Planetary errors. Main has been trying to correct the elements of Venus from them, but the errors come out so oddly as to make GA suspect that there is some error of theory.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - In response to Colonel Everest's pamphlet, GA wrote to the East India Company to inquire into the nature of Major Jervis's appointment. They wrote back stating that it was for the entire management of the India Survey: 'There is a charming appointment for you! Given a furious fellow like Everest on one side, and a not-over-wise one like Jervis on the other, I do not think that a better appointment could have been devised for the purpose of setting them together by the ears and dragging some innocent persons into the quarrel'.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Could WW send GA 'a parcel of the mild Trinity ale - for which my "government" have a great esteem'. When GA was last in Cambridge Deighton [book publisher] told him that nearly all of GA's tracts were gone and wished to know what he intended to do: 'Can you help me with your council? I have hardly time to give such attention to the thing as would be necessary to keep it to level...also it is very likely that somebody else would do it better'.

Flamsteed House, Greenwich - Thanks WW for the ale [see GA to WW, 10 October 1839]: 'we shall consume it I believe before time has done it justice'. GA has not seen WW's lecture to the Philosophical Society on tides: 'I should much like to see it; and shall be glad if you can send it to me. I have not duly consulted Herschel, but I remember his general notions about forced oscillations and so far in application to tides they must agree with mine. By the bye, my correlative terms are forced tide wave and free tide wave. In the simplest cases which can be conceived, the two are mixed together so as to produce phenomena that, viewed as observations from which empirical laws are to be deduced must appear inextricably confused. In one case only, namely when a limited space is very small, the tide becomes a simple tilt, like that of water in a basin. This cannot be the case in a sea so large and (comparatively) shallow as the Pacific, but upon one supposition one of the waves there may predominate, and there may be phenomena something like Fitzroy's. But I should like to see what you have said'.

Flamsteed House, Greenwich - Could WW send him a tracing of the Kamschatham waves? - preferably the whole course of the water in rising and falling.

Royal Greenwich Observatory - GA's paper 'On a New Construction of the Going Fusee, Adapted in the Clock-Work of the Northumberland Telescope' is ready, and he will be reading it on Monday evening at the Philosophical Society.

Royal Observatory Greenwich - Gives his comments regarding WW's paper on the history of optics and light in general [for his The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded Upon their History?]: 'There is one fault in the general arrangement, which I do not see how to remove - namely, that the phenomena and explanations of fringes, gratings, &c, did precede in history and do precede in mental comprehension those relating to dipolarisation. But the things are very much interlaced all through'.

Orleans - GA and his students are settled in Orleans and 'in as satisfactory a state of stable equilibrium as can be expected'. If his paper in the Philosophical Transactions has been published could WW send him 70 copies. Could WW tell [Henry] Kater 'that I have investigated a theory of the pendulum...as he suggested to me: and that the interval to reappearance does not follow so simple a law as he seemed to imagine?' And if he sees Young, that further to his letter addressed to GA in the Quarterly Journal, 'I get a different result? The result however consolidates his influence. The problem is, to find the form of a thin revolving fluid surrounding a nucleus'.