Identity area
Reference code
Herschel/Box 2/James 508.
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 1818–1820 (Much of the work is undated.) (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
paper
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Astronomer; son of Sir William Herschel; senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman, 1813; subsequently fellow of St John's College, Cambridge; MA 1816; helped to found Analytical Society, Cambridge, 1813; secretary to Royal Society 1824-7; president of Astronomical Society, 1827-32; created baronet, 1838; president of British Association, 1845; master of the Mint, 1850-5. Major contribution to astronomy through the discovery and cataloguing of many double stars, work on 'light' and early work on photographical process. Buried in Westminster Abbey.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Contents:
-
Hyposulphurous and Paper (Using polarized light in analysis of crystals).
-
Early 'Chrystal' paper (pre-1819).
-
History of Math (two drafts).
-
Mathematical Papers
-
On Coloured Flames (16 numbered pages, a page of sketches of curves (transmitted intensity v. colour))
-
15 pages of 'computations for optical papers of 1820' for absorption curves and apophyllite (3 varieties), Rochelle salt