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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Correspondence Explorer

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Showing 6 letters from 1686–1690

4 letters from William Molyneux; 2 letters from Edmond Halley

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Wishing correspondence to continue between the Royal Society and the Dublin Philosophical Society; details about the resignation of Aston and Robinson; concerning Hooke's barometer; concerning the controversy between Hevelius and Hooke with details about his observations of the stars in the southern hemisphere

Reference number: EL/H3/41

Thanks for sending the figure of the girl with a deformity Concerning inventions by Hooke: the level; his pendulum clock; his telescope Concerning treatment of Hevelius's observations Concerning Henry Justel's account of the furnace

Reference number: EL/H3/43

Concerning the role of the secretary of the Society and that this person should be paid; concerning work to produce a natural history; thanks for his election to the Fellowship and for sending correspondence; concerning a child with extraordinary mathematical ability; concerning Hooke and his baroscope; concerning the controversy about Hevelius and his telescopic sights; discussing a proposition about 'shooting ascents and descents' (with figure) Read to the Royal Society on 21 April 1686

Reference number: EL/M1/94

Sends figures of a girl who had 'horns' growing mainly from her joints - states that an account of the girl has been published in 'Philosophical Transactions' ( vol 15, no 176, p 1202 by St George Ashe) Read to the Royal Society on 26 May 1686

Reference number: EL/M1/95

Concerning the wire in Robert Hooke's level and about applying a pendulum to a watch; discussing Hooke's baroscope; states that objections to Hevelius's work should be sent to him when he is alive rather than dead; thanks for a paper on the doctrine of shooting; sends some wolf's fangs; that Huygens had gone to find the northern passage or to discover longitude - sends questions about latitude, exactness of time at sea and about whether it is possible to manage a 12-foot telescope at sea Read to the Royal Society on 30 June 1686

Reference number: EL/M1/96
1690

Thanks for sending a paper on the foci for spherical lenses; observations of an earthquake in Chester; wishes for Halley's last thoughts on shooting On the reverse Molyneux discusses Halley's double convex and double concave lenses Read to the Royal Society on 15 October 1690

Reference number: EL/M1/98