SCIENTIFIC

From the papers of the family of the second wife of the geologist Alexander Henry Green (1832-1896), previously Miss Wilhelmina Maria Armstrong of Clifton. 1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. As 'Dr Thorpe' has not send him his address 'as he promised to', Rucker does not know 'exactly where he is'. He will send her letter to Thorpe's house, 'whence it will be forwarded'.

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.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and with wear to edges. Reads: 'Dear Sir | I have the pleasure of forwarding the official notice of your election as Member of the Society, and send by the same post a copy of the last issue of the Society's Journal. | Your subscription, as intimated, of 10/ may be paid at your convenience.'

2pp., 12mo. Bifiolium. Mimeographed document in purple ink. The date, Ramsay's name and Bonney's signature are added in Bonney's autograph. The Association's council, 'acting under the powers conferred upon them by the General Committee in accordance with their Report, have appointed a Committee [...] to carry into effect the recommendations of the portion of the Council Report accepted by the General committee'. A 'List of the Committee' is on the second page, the eleven members headed by 'Mr. H. G. Fordham (Secretary)' and featuring 'Mr. Francis Galton' and 'Mr. A. Ramsay'.

1p., 12mo. On aged and worn paper, with loss to a few words of engraved text. A good piece of Royal Society ephemera: a nicely engraved form, with ornate letterhead. Addressed to 'A. Ramsay Esq | FGS', and signed 'M. Foster'. Acknowledging Ramsay's 'mark of consideration' in sending 'Scientific Roll. Vol. 1. Nos. 4-7'.

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The letter begins: 'It would afford me very great pleasure to help you in the matter of "The Scientific Roll" This is not a Literary or Scientific locality! and we have given up our Booksellers' Shop'. If Ramsay will send 'a copy of the numbers printed', he will 'give a notice in the "Hertfordshire Mercury" and perhaps that will make it known and induce people to take it.' The Austin family continued to run the Hertfordshire Mercury until the 1980s.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. The letter would appear to relate to the formation of the American Society for Psychical Research. Six days before the writing of the present letter, on 23 September 1884, Minot had been a member of a committee of nine scientists who met at Boston to consider the advisability of the formation of a society for psychical research in America, William James being another member.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. He begins: 'On taking up the spare proof I find one small correction which should have been made'. He describes the correction that needs to be made on 'page 5 of th proof 13th line from bottom'. Ramsay is not named, but the item is from his papers.

1p., 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. A somewhat grand and expansive printed form, completed in manuscript by Sowerby. He thanks the 'Gentlemen' who are 'The Proprietors of "Scientific Roll"' for 'the continuation, as published, of The "Scientific Roll"'. From the papers of Alexander Ramsay, editor of the 'Scientific Roll'.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. A tantalizing extract from a correspondence. He begins: 'I doubt whether domestic service, as a rule, is quite the state of slavery you depict, but, as I said before, the question which you ask me is less simple than you appear to think and I can only say that every employer is bound to remember that those he (or she) employs has wants, bodily and spiritual, very similar to his own.' He concludes the letter, and the correspondence, by apologising that he 'cannot continue to write on the subject'.

1p., 12mo. On aged and norn paper. Written in a difficult hand. Appears to read: 'Dear Mr Woodrow | I send you the enclosed (my ticket) till the end of July. Please let me <?> it at 71 Seymour St on the evening of July 31st.' A Catholic convert, Mivart was increasingly disenchanted with his friend Thomas Henry Huxley's anti-papist stance, and repudiated his initial support for the theory of evolution. This did not, however, endear him the the Roman Catholic authorities.

2pp., 8vo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. He is sending 'the first two volumes of the Proceedings of the Mineralogical Section of the Acad - as also some papers of my own'. He has heard of Ramsay's 'Scientific Roll', and desires to 'heartily endorse it', in the 'hope that it may be continued – It will be of very great service to scientific men'. He will be glad to receive it, and in return to send 'from time to time both the Proceedings of the Section and other original material'.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with small tape stain at head. Reads: 'Dear Sir, | Will you be so good as to have my address registered in the Athenaeum books as above, which is my place of residence & not Whitby - from whence I have just recd. a circular about the payment of a subscription, which I had ordered to be made some days ago.'

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition. The recipient is not identified. The letter begins: 'Dear Madam | It always gives me pleasure when I can in any way assist a student of Geology, and the pleasure is not lessened when the student is a young lady.' He proceeds to explain how the two specimens about which she has written to him ('Frigonia incurva' and 'Pleuromya Voltzi') have been wrongly identified, concluding: 'Your specimens appear from your drawings to be only casts and may therefore be difficult to determine satisfactorily.'

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'.

2pp.,12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. He has been informed by 'Mr. Hill of the Victoria & Albert Museum' that Harington has 'a Backstaff'. Adams has been 'looking out for one for some years' without success and would like to purchase Harington's if he has 'no use for it. 'I think Mr. Hill mentioned to you that I had a collection of old navigating instruments & he has very kindly been trying to find a backstaff for me'. He ends in the hope that Harington will 'excuse the zeal of the collector'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. He letter begins: 'The last time I had the pleasure of being at your Works, was with The Duke of Sutherland, & Mr. Maconnell then of the L. & N. W. Rail. I am now anxious to see you on a matter of business, & if you are at home, I propose to go to Bedford on Thursday next, the 7th. Jany.' He gives details of how he proposes to travel, before explaining his object as to 'show you the Plan of a plough. I have tried it in a rough way, & it seems to save much <?>, & to do good work.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. He thanks him for a copy of his 'papers', 'though I regret to say they are sealed books to me'. He explains how 'Pebbles of white quartz are originally derived from veins in the metamorphic rocks by marine action. They may occur in any formation & are common in many.' He describes the locations where they are to be found, before sending his and his wife's regards to Plarr and his wife.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn. Forty lines of text. He has been 'looking out for the review in the D[aily]. T[elegraph]. but never a review at all I seen. [sic] I suppose that these politics &c, squeeze out any matter which can bide its time'. He recalls their previous meeting: 'last time was on a Sunday morning, when Theodore & I trotted from Belvedere to Sidcup [...] he, like you, has been following his father's footsteps, & has made somewhat of a name in economic edntomology'.

33pp., 8vo. Unbound stitched pamphlet. On aged and chipped paper. Apparently lacking covers, on which publication details would have been written. Inscribed at head of first page: 'Mr Stone | from the Author.' Siemens begins by mourning the passing of Charles Darwin "whose bold conceptions, patient labour, and genial mind made him almost a type of unsurpassed excellence". Five copies on OCLC WorldCat. No copy at the British Library.

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.

The Patent Office - now the Intellectual Property Office - was established by the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852, which simplified the procedure for obtaining patents of invention and reduced costs. In 1883 another Act of Parliament brought into being the office of Comptroller General of Patents, with, according to the National Archives, 'a staff of patent examiners to carry out a limited form of examination; mainly to ensure that the specification described the invention properly, but without any investigation into novelty'.

105 pp, in contemporary 4to notebook; started at both ends, with 53 pp at one, and 52 pp at the other. Quarter-bound in brown calf, marbled boards. Aged, in worn binding with a few loose leaves, but fair, and with text clear and complete. Ticket of 'Gotelee, Bookseller Printer and Stationer, Oakingham' on front pastedown. In two hands, the first considerably neater than the other, writing 18 pp of patrons (23 to a page), beginning with 'His Grace the Duke of Manchester Kimbolton Castle Hants', and featuring Sir E. Page Turner Bart Battleden House Woburn'.

4to: x + 379 pp. Frontispiece and plates. Tight copy on aged paper, in worn binding. Annotated throughout, with the endpapers and almost every page of the first 146 in particular crammed with notes by Branford in pencil and pen. On the front free endpaper Branford writes 'Finished (fairly thoroughly) on Feb. 26th 1934', and on the title-page, 'B. B. Sep. 3d. 1943'. On the same page he has added to the title 'and many notes (additional to those in text) on his intimate & great friend James Clerk Maxwell [...] the notes being taken from his Life by Campbell & Garnett'.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged paper with some wear at bottom edge. Addressed 'Monsieur'. After a reference to a newspaper article by the recipient and 'les journalistes Français', he communicates, on the subject of cremation, 'un fait que j'ai appris hier du rédacteur en chef d'un grand journal Suisse et qui n'a pas été rendu public par les gazettes', concerning an attack on those attempting a cremation in Berne.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He will have 'much pleasure in breaking our stones o'er again on Thursday', and will 'try & bring some sections with me - several specimens are in the lapidary's hands'. He ends by asking for confirmation of the hour at which he should call on him.

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper, with slight damage to a few words along one edge due to removal from album. On his return to Eastbourne he has 'found a note announcing the Commission under the Great Seal for appointing Commissioners to inquire into the best mode of preventing the forgery of Bank Notes', and requiring his attendance the following day.

Each on one side of a 9.5 x 13.5cm piece of paper. Both in fair condition, with light signs of age and wear. G. C. Eimmart's autograph headed by a four-line quotation in Latin beginning: 'Omnes probi viri actiones ad sua intima vergunt'. Signed: 'in Gonorem | Nobilissimi

On 3 x 17 cm. slip of paper, cut from longer document. In fair condition, lightly aged and folded. Reads: 'Prof Forbes' compliments to Mr Bowerbank and he cannot they are not ready he will forward them to Mr Ransom himself'.

On both sides of a 9 x 11 cm. grey card with embossed letterhead. In good condition, lightly aged. Docketted and with Royal Academy of Arts stamp. 'Lt. Colonel Crompton begs to enclose a cheque in payment of his subscription and will be greatly obliged to the Secretary if he will send him a form to enable his Bankers - Messrs. Barclay & Co. to pay the subscription in future.' Crompton's firm Crompton & Co. was one of the world's first large-scale manufacturers of electrical equipment.