Identity area
Reference code
Herschel/Box 3/James 516
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 1814–1824 (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:
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Consideration of various points in analysis. Published (with alterations) in Philosophical Transactions (1814). 25 numbered pages.
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On the action of crystals with two axes on homogeneous light and on the cause of the deviation from Newton's scale in the tints which they develop on exposure to a polarized ray, Philosophical Transactions 110 (1820, 45-100. Read 23 December 1819. Pages of observations and/or calculations 'with some duplicate and some miscellaneous papers'. Two drafts, included a few corrected proof sheets, of this most important paper and some notes to the printer.
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On aberration. A draft with some proof sheets, with comparatively few corrections and annotations, but possibly important ones.
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Observations of the apparent distances and positions of double and triple stars made in the years 1821, 1822, 1823, Philosophical Transactions 114 (1824), part 3, 1-21.
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On the separation of iron from other metals. Draft MSS for Philosophical Transactions 111 (1821), 293-9. Read 5 April 1821.
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MSS notes for 1824 Bakerian Lecture to the Royal Society on electricity (c. 15 20 leaves, heavily corrected).
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On the development of exponential functions together with several new theorems relating to finite differences (2 copies, c. 30 pages each).
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On the general laws of the isochromatic bands in 'chrystals', 17 April 1819 (never published). This is interleaved in the main Philosophical Transaction article, the pagination of which is most confused. There are apparently only 4 sheets, both sides each, of a very rough draft with unfinished sketches