| Description | He does not have his mother's last letter at hand to reply properly. Kate Hoare has arrived and William describes her. His plan is to go to New Lodge and London. [From 8 February] He encloses a slip [not present] and is sorry not to be at Hawkhurst before Bella goes. He has sent J's [John Herschel's] queries to Alex [Alexander Stewart Herschel] after consulting [Henry Enfield] Roscoe, who could not aid with John's principal difficulty. Roscoe says that the wave theory has explained some of the phenomena of electricity and there is no difficulty in two waves meeting and passing in a wire. He saw Roscoe yesterday, suffering from a kick of a horse, but well again. He showed William his laboratory and spectroscopic instruments, promising to entertain a party of William's with a set of experiments on Monday next. He demonstrated to William an 'absurdly simple' ice-making machine, a flask of water through which a tube is inserted connected to an air-pump [with a small sketch]. He showed William to the new buildings at Owen's College. William is sorry to hear about the East India stock and mentions his talks with Edward [Hardcastle]. |