LABORATORY

[Walter Rosenhain, distinguished metallurgist of German-Jewish extraction, grew up in Australia, lived in England.] Six Typed Letters Signed, Two Autograph Letters Signed, and one Typed Note Signed to G. K. Menzies, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Walter Rosenhain (1875-1934), distinguished metallurgist born in Germany of Jewish extraction, who grew up in Australia and moved to England in 1897 [Royal Society of Arts]
Publication details: 
1915, 1924 (3), 1925 (3) and 1926 (2). The nine items on letterheads of the metallurgy department of the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex.
£250.00

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and Australian Dictionary of Biography. The recipient George Kenneth Menzies (1869-1954) was Secretary to the Royal Society of Arts between 1917 and 1935. The nine items are in good condition, lightly aged, and are folded for postage. Each bears the stamp of the RSA, some with manuscript docketting. Letters of 4 April and 18 September 1925 are in autograph, the rest typed; all nine are signed ‘Walter Rosesnhain’.

[ Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe, British chemist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('T. E. Thorpe') to 'Mrs. Green' [ Wilhelmina Maria Green ], offering encouragement and support for the publication of a scientific paper by her.

Author: 
Sir T. E. Thorpe [ Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe ] (1845-1925), British chemist, Principal of Somerset House Laboratory, and President of the British Association and Society of Chemical Industry
Publication details: 
'Headingley [ Yorkshire ]. 20 May 1885.
£50.00

The item is from the papers of the second wife of the geologist Alexander Henry Green (1832-1896), previously Miss Wilhelmina Maria Armstrong of Clifton. 3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. An interesting letter, indicating a positive and encouraging response from a member of the Victorian scientific establishment to a female worker in the field. The letter begins: 'Dear Mrs. Green. | Enclosed are two notes from Dr. Armstrong relative to your paper. As I informed you I thought there was just a doubt whether the paper was exactly of a style for the Chem. Soc. Journ.

[ Professor Robert Bellamy Clifton, designer of the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('R B Clifton') to 'Wells' [ Joseph Wells ], regarding 'the tickets for the Wadham party'.

Author: 
Robert Bellamy Clifton (1836-1921), Professor of Experimental Natural Philosophy at Oxford University, designer of the Clarendon Laboratory [ Joseph Wells (1855-1929) of Wadham College, Oxford ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Portland Lodge, Park Town, Oxford. 18 June 1884.
£80.00

2pp., 12mo. In good condition. Good firm signature, beneath which, in a contemporary hand: 'Professor of Experimental Philosophy | F.R.S: F.R.A.S.' He has been prevented from thanking Wells for 'the tickets for the Wadham party',having been engaged in 'a series of oscillations between London & Oxford', and his expressions of gratitude 'must now be combined with apologies for my delay in giving utterance to them'. Neither he nor his wife will be able to attend 'the festivity', but he has 'ventured to send the tickets to Mrs. G. R. Scott'.

[ Bernard Alfred Southgate, Director of the Water Pollution Research Laboratory. ] Three Typed Letters Signed (both 'B A Southgate') to J. Samson of the Royal Society of Arts, regarding a lecture on 'Prevention of Water Pollution'.

Author: 
Bernard Alfred Southgate (1904-1975), Director of the Water Pollution Research Laboratory, Stevenage [ Department of Industrial and Scientific Research; Royal Society of Arts ]
Publication details: 
All three on letterheads of the Water Pollution Research Laboratory (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research), Stevenage, Hertfordshire. 16 July and 9 and 23 August 1963.
£45.00

Five items: Southgate's three letters and carbons of two of Samson's replies (17 July and 10 August 1963). The five are all in good condition, on lightly aged paper. Southgate's first letter (16 July 1963; 1p., 12mo) accepts Samson 'invitation to give a paper', and discusses the question of the title: 'We are concerned here with the prevention of pollution and the study of its effects in surface waters and my paper would deal mainly with that side of the question rather than with the treatment of water as carried out by a water undertaking.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sir H[enry]. T[rueman]. Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
John Allen Harker
Publication details: 
9 February 1916; The National Physical Laboratory, Teddington (on deleted letterhead of the National Liberal Club).
£28.00

Inventor and engineer (1870-1923), whose papers are held by the Royal Society. During the war Harker was in the Inventions Department of the Ministry of Munitions. One page, 12mo. Good, if slightly grubby. Docketed in pencil and bearing the Society's stamp. Reads 'I send herewith a short contribution to the discussion of Dr Flemings paper at which I was present but in which on account of lack of time I did not feel it desirable to take part verbally.' Signed 'J. A. Harker'.

Typed Letter Signed to W. Perry, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Cecil Henry Desch
Publication details: 
2 February 1937; on letterhead (including map of environs) of the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex.
£45.00

Eminent British metallurgist (1874-1958). One page, quarto. Very good. 'I should have been pleased to take the chair at Professor Bragg's Lecture, but I have already undertaken to preside at a similar lecture by Professor Bragg [...] and to have the same Chairman on both occasions, the lectures dealing with the same subjects, would suggest that Metallurgy is very poorly represented in London. Would it be possible to get Sir Harold Carpenter to take the chair? I am sure that you will have a good Meeting, as Professor Bragg's lectures are always exceedingly interesting.' Signed 'C. H.

Autograph Letter Signed [to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts].

Author: 
Francis Brett Young [ADMIRALTY RESEARCH LABORATORY]
Publication details: 
29 October 1935; on letterhead of the 'Admiralty Research | Laboratory, | Teddington, Middlesex.'
£45.00

Novelist, short story writer and poet (1884-1954). Two pages, quarto. Very good, though dusty and with small staple holes to one corner. Docketed. Apologises for the late reply to the invitation to join the Society ('the oversight was due to the intervention of leave and other causes'). 'Though I am afraid that I shall not be able to avail myself to any great extent of the advantage offered by your Society, staff members of this Laboratory will doubtless be glad to attend your lectures as they have already done in the past.' Consequently he will offer himself for election. Signed 'F. B.

Syndicate content