| Description | Nos 1 to 7 Papers of the Subcommittee on Experiments of the Optical Glass Committee, 1827-1830.
"Of the active Committee of Michael Faraday, George Dollond and Herschel, Faraday was to analyse chemically the glass in use and to devise experimentally a better glass, Dollond was to act as a practical optician and Herschel was to test its optical properties". M Boas-Hall, 'All Scientists Now: The Royal Society in the Nineteenth Century', Cambridge: CUP, 1984, p32
See also CMB/1/13, CMB/69-71, Optical Glass Committee Minute Books and MS/365, Faraday's Glass Furnace Note Book.
Nos 8 to 43 Oddments, 1852-1862
Including papers on the housing of the Royal Society, J P Gassiot's Balloon ascents, suggestions for observations to be made on expeditions, papers on land owned by the Royal Society in Acton and correspondence on scientific papers submitted to the Society.
Nos 44 to 53 Letters about 'the Kincardine Papers', letters from Sir Robert Moray to his friend Alexander Bruce, Earl of Kincardine, 1657-1673 (MS. 246). 1879-1947
This correspondence relates to matters arising from the provenance of papers, particularly their location in 1930 and the possibility they contain information on Christian Huygens's watchmaking.
See also: Clifford Dobell, 'The Kincardine Papers', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Oct. 1946), pp174-178
Nos 54 to 62 Letters about papers of J F W Herschel, 1943-1944
Papers of Herschel's were deposited with the Royal Society in 1944, by his Grandson JCW Herschel.
Nos 63 to 83 Oddments, 1849-1951
Including papers on the deviation of compasses on board ships made from iron and on possible solutions to the problem and correspondence on the building Melbourne Observatory.
Nos 84 to 102 Letters from Francis Wall Oliver to Sir EJ Russell, 1939-1949
"From 1929 until 1935 Oliver was professor at Cairo University. In the latter year he went to live on the edge of the desert and studied the changing aspects of its vegetation. He returned finally to England in 1950". (From the Oxford Dictonary of National Biography).
These letters contain information on the nature of and observations made upon dust-storms.
Nos 103 to 163 Oddments, 1667-1912
Including papers on the Quekett Microscopical Club, the Indian Trigonometrical Survey, on the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade, paintings offered for exhibition by the Royal Society, on the creation of the Davy Medal and correspondence on scientific papers submitted to the Society.
Nos 164 to 181 Letters from various persons to Sir Alfred Ewing, 1890-1891.
Mostly on Ewing's paper 'Contributions to the Molecular Theory of Induced Magnetism', 'Proceedings of the Royal Society of London' Vol. 48 (1890), pp. 342-358.
With accompanying correspondence on the deposit of the papers with the Royal Society, 1953.
Nos 182 to 240 Letters and papers about the Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers (1864-1874 approx).
Mostly replies to a circular letter from WH Miller, Foreign Secretary, Royal Society, asking librarians (of Foreign Academies) to add to an enclosed printed list the names of any journals containing papers which they think should be included in the Royal Society's 'Catalogue of Scientific Memoirs'.
In MM/14/182, the 'Catalogue...', is described as: "... intended to serve as an index to the Scientific Periodic Literature of the 19th Century. It will contain the titles, so far as they can be obtained from the original sources, of the Scientific Papers published in the Transactions of Societies, Journals, and other periodical works, which have appeared since the year 1800".
See also M Boas-Hall, 'All Scientists Now: The Royal Society in the Nineteenth Century', Cambridge: CUP, 1984, p152-155. |