| Reference number | MS/257/1/305 |
| Alternative reference number | Sa.305 |
| Previous numbers | ES1/48/305 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from William Benjamin Carpenter, University of London, Burlington House to Edward Sabine |
| Date | 12 November 1870 |
| Description | Carpenter conveys important results from the ‘porcupine work’ [reference to the deep-sea explorations using ‘HMS Porcupine’] to Sabine. The first part of the expedition was a continuation of last year’s work under the charge of Mr [John] Gwyn Jeffreys and Mr [Joshua] Lindahl (‘a young Swedish naturalist’) as his natural history assistant, and Carpenter’s eldest son, W L Carpenter as his chemical assistant. Carpenter describes the work done at depths of 400 to 1000 fathoms. Reference to new acquisitions made most notably a pentacrinus ‘nearly as large as the two West Indian species’. Discussion on the temperature of the Atlantic. Carpenter discusses his sons research regarding the ‘determination by volumetric analysis of the proportion of chlorine in samples of Atlantic water taken from the surface and various depths beneath it’.
Mr Jeffreys vacated the ship in Gibraltar, and Carpenters eldest sons was replaced by his younger [Philip] Herbert Carpenter, with Mr Lindahl remaining in charge of the natural history work. Discussion on the physical conditions of the Mediterranean, and the excess of salinity.
Carpenter discusses the temperature phenomenon of the Mediterranean. Description of results of the deep dredging, and carpenter notes the results were not what they were expecting. The bottom consisted of ‘an extremely fine mud, in some parts sandy, in other parts more clayey’. Reference to a paper by Professor [John] Tyndall on the subject. Carpenter describes dredging in shallower water near the African coast and ‘bottom temperatures’. |
| Extent | 16p |
| Format | Manuscript |
| Physical description | Ink on paper |
| Access status | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | Name | Dates |
| NA2869 | Carpenter; William Benjamin (1813 - 1885); naturalist | 1813 - 1885 |
| NA8279 | Sabine; Sir; Edward (1788 - 1883) | 1788 - 1883 |