Item 37 - James David Forbes to William Whewell

Identity area

Reference code

Add. MS a/204/37

Title

James David Forbes to William Whewell

Date(s)

  • 21 Dec. 1838 (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

4 pp

Context area

Name of creator

Whewell, William (1794-1866), college head and writer on the history and philosophy of science
(1794-1866)

Repository

Trinity College Library, Cambridge

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Edinburgh - JDF's experiments with his subterranean thermometers have been so successful he has printed an early circular giving a first approximation of the results [attached to this letter - Discussion of One Year's Observations of Thermometers Sunk to Different Depths in Different Localities in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh, private circulation, 1838: The aim of the experiments was to ascertain the progress of solar heat in the crust of the globe - see JDF to WW, 21 Sept. 1836]. JDF notes that Hopkins [William Hopkins] has been giving his views respecting the interior of the earth to the Royal Society: 'Are his results wholly dynamical or partly theoretical'. A pupil of JDF's has been investigating the temperature of the interior of the globe in the manner of S.D. Poisson but with P.L. Dulong and A.T. Petit's law. JDF came to Newcastle shortly after the BAAS meeting hoping to find WW. He saw Babbage [Charles Babbage]: 'as miserable as a man could well be after all his wanton mischief at Newcastle. He wished to make me a convert to his cause, but even by his own shewing he was so utterly in the wrong that there was no hope for him'. JDF has been at work on heat: 'trying to get the law of reflection at surfaces'.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

    Script of material

      Language and script notes

      Physical characteristics and technical requirements

      Finding aids

      Allied materials area

      Existence and location of originals

      Existence and location of copies

      Related units of description

      Related descriptions

      Notes area

      Alternative identifier(s)

      Access points

      Subject access points

      Place access points

      Name access points

      Genre access points

      Description identifier

      Institution identifier

      Rules and/or conventions used

      Status

      Level of detail

      Dates of creation revision deletion

      Language(s)

        Script(s)

          Sources

          Accession area