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Material collected by Thompson, 1825-1915, and removed from books within the S P Thompson Rare Books collection housed within IET Library. It comprises correspondence (1890-1915) from contemporary physicists and mathematicians such as David James Blaikley, Sir William Henry Blagg, Sir Charles Tilston Bright, Hugh Longbourne Callendar, Henry Smith Carhart, Sir John Ambrose Fleming, Sir Richard Tetley Glazebrook, Oliver Heaviside, Gisbert Kapp, Phillip Kelland, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Henry Preece, Albion T. Snell, Sir William Spottiswoode, and William Thompson, Baron Kelvin; and press cuttings, photographs, engravings, autographs and letters (1870-1916) relating to eminent scientists including Sir Cristopher Wren, Sir Isaac Newton, James Watt, William Herschel, Sir John Flamsteed, Alexander Von Humboldt, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Sir Charles Lyell, William Gilbert, Otto von Guericke, Robert Boyle, Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Priestley, Alessandro Volta, Sir Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday, Sir Charles Wheatstone, James Clerk Maxwell, Josiah Latimer Clark, Werner von Siemens, Alexander Graham Bell, Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, and many others.

Material created by Ronalds' during his time abroad, and as Honorary Director of the British Association's Observatory at Kew, with various notes on electricity, 1818-1871. It comprises material relating to Ronalds' travels abroad including journals, notebooks, sketchbooks, bills of expenses, and correspondence relating to two journeys to Italy, Egypt, the Holy Land and the Greek Islands; Material relating to 'Sketches at Carnac' and atmospheric electricity including pencil sketches and notes on atmospheric electricity taken from published sources; Correspondence while Honorary Director at the British Association's Observatory at Kew, including letters to Ronalds from various correspondents, mainly dealing with aspects of meteorology and magnetism, and the affairs of the Observatory at Kew, with technical discussion of self-registration by photography, bifilar magnets, atmospheric electricity; Notes, reports and copy correspondence relating to Ronalds' time at the Kew Observatory including a foolscap notebook with several loose insertions relating to a system devised by Ronalds for propelling or towing vessels in water by means of a stationary fulcrum; Papers relating to telescopes, fires, meteorology and Report on Kew for 1849-1850, including notes and diagrams relating to the design of a stand for a telescope, material relating to the design of a self-acting fire alarm, barometric and temperature readings, material relating to expenses and experiments at Kew for report on the observatory 1849-1850 presented to the British Association at their meeting in 1850, papers relating to a proposed 'Turner's Manual' which Ronalds began writing 1838-1839; Papers relating to perspective, the electric telegraph, galvanism and electromagnetism, electric columns, atmospheric electricity, aquatic propulsion and drawing and surveying; Notes and sketches on items relating to various subjects, including a small catalogue of books on meteorology, electricity etc, and a bundle of unused photographic paper and some tracings from Ronalds' self registering instruments; Printed material relating to Ronalds' perspective tracing instruments; Extracts from diaries and newspaper cuttings; Portrait album of well-known European scientists.

Working notes, correspondence, annotated papers and printed pamphlets relating to telegraphy, collected by Heaviside 1872-1921. The collection comprises: Notebooks mainly consisting of mathematical equations and calculations with drafts and transcripts of papers submitted to the Philosophical Magazine and the Electrician, covering subjects such as problems with long distance signal transmission and the development of a non-distortional circuit, duplex telegraphy, the age of the earth including the development of equations for heat loss from a spherical body, measurement of resistance, eletromagnetic theory of light, the transmission of an electric charge along a wire, Maxwell's equations, vector operators for mathematical calculations; Pamphlets and publications mainly relating to telegraphy, many annotated, including works on the analysis of cathode rays, radiation, radioactivity and early attempt to define the workings of the atom, telegraphy and telephony; Papers, comprising rough notes and calculations, including drafts of papers such as Operators in Physical Mathematics Parts 2 and 3, proof copies of Electromagnetic Theory with notes and calculations on the reverse, and correspondence with The Electrician and other periodicals over the publication of his articles; Official awards and honours presented to Heaviside and other assorted items, including the award of Cedergren Medal and Gottingen University Honorary Doctorate, 1924; Notes by Heaviside on plane waves and electrification, the application of zonal harmonics on physical problems, magnetic induction, gravitational dimensions, the magnetism of the earth, on the backs of old letters; Correspondence from notable scientists and mathematicians including Sir Oliver Lodge, W E Ayrton, W H Bragg, S P Thompson, and Sir William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs; Material found at Paignton, 1957, including Preliminary drafts of articles for Electromagnetic Theory; annotated galley proofs of Electromagnetic Theory; assorted papers, spare proofs of papers and miscellaneous correspondence, and additional correspondence sent to Heaviside.

Manuscript volumes, correspondence and papers by Michael Faraday including material based on original Faraday documents 1809-1961, comprising six volumes in total covering subjects on botany; chemistry; colour; fire eating; galvanism; gas lighting; light; magnetism; meteorology; lightning; preserving drawings; removing glass stoppers; scientific apparatus; details of his visits with Davy to France and Italy 1813- 1814; visits to copper works and state mines in Wales 1819; visit to the Isle of Wight 1824; manuscript notes on lectures given by Faraday to the City Philosophical Society 1816-1819; general observations; experiments; notes including scientific subjects as well as anagrams; etymology; recipes for gin and ginger beer; humour; love; memory; oratory; philosophy; Rochefoucault; Shakespeare; 'Chemical Love Letter.' 1816-1846; chemical notes [1822]; notes on experiments on electric lamps powered by batteries 1854 and a letter to John Tyndall; c 750 manuscript correspondence between Faraday and scientists, politicians and the general public 1812-1867; letters and draft letters by Faraday written from the Royal Institution 1853-1863; committe minutes from a subcommitte set up to conduct experiments in optical glass 1828-1835; papers relating to the wear and production of coinage at the Royal Mint 1835; papers relating to table-turning 1853-1864; Faraday's French passport 1856; notes on Faraday including his illness and his refusal of the post of President at the Royal Institution 1864-1872.

These papers show Davy's first ideas for an electric telegraph from his early sketches in 1836 of a frictional electric telegraph to one worked by electromagentism which he developed 1836-1839. His first patent was lodged in 1837 in opposition to Cooke and Wheatstone's first patent. The papers indicate his efforts to find a purchaser for the patent rights and to establish a company to develop the telegraph. He made agreements with several business men but none of these arrangements bore any fruit. He also negotiated with the railway companies and demonstrated the telegraph for them. The papers record the efforts of his father, Thomas Davy, and several others, to continue Davy's negotiations with the railway companies and the arrangements which were made to re-exhibit a working model of the telegraph. The papers also relate to the sale of the patent to the Electric Telegraph Company in 1847. Fahie's memoir on Davy is included in the papers.

Personal and business correpondence of William Fothergill Cooke, mostly relating to his dispute with Charles Wheatstone, together with legal documents (copies and originals) connected with the case, in 7 bound volumes. Comprising personal correspondence, mainly to Cooke's mother relating to his hopes and expectations of the telegraph. The correspondence is mainly 1836-1841 with fewer letters for 1843, 1844, 1860, 1868, 1869, 1875, 1879 and 1880. There is also correspondence with Latimer Clark both before and after Cooke's death concerning a history of British Telegraphy and a life of Sir William Fothergill Cooke. Copies of this some of this correspondence can be found in Volume VII, and these are easier to read than the extensively crossed originals; Correspondence relating to railway companies, arbitration, and creation of the Electric Telegraph Company. The correspondence also shows the causes of the breakdown of his partnership with Wheatstone, the arbitration process and subsequent agreement to purchase Wheatstone's royalties in the shares; Correspondence between Mr Robert Wilson, solicitor acting for William Fothergill Cooke, and William Richardson, solicitor acting for Professor Wheatstone, relating to the arbitration between Cooke and Wheatstone, frequently concerning sending of drafts of agreement, with amendments, and with arranging appointments for arbitrators, and witnesses for the arbitration; Papers concerned with the arbitration between Cooke and Wheatstone, including bound copies of agreements and articles referred to in the arbitration; Papers submitted to the Arbitrators, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and John Frederic Daniell in 1841, mainly copies of evidence. They represent Cooke and Wheatstone's cases, and the Arbitrators' decision, with one later patent granted to Sir William Fothergill Cooke. There are also some poems about Autralia or the Central World and Neptune at the end of the volume; Papers concerning assignment by Wheatstone of all royalties and shares to Cooke, including extracts of letters and transfers and assignments of inventions, rights in patents and shares separating Wheatstone and Cooke's business affairs; Copies of letters, mainly from Volume I of the collection made by George Bristow of the successor firm to Wilson and Harrison with the idea of publishing them on the 50th anniversary of the first Patent for the Electric Telegraph. The Volume contains copies of three letters between Bristow and Latimer Clark, and copies of extracts of other letters. Several letters were cut out for publication in 1893. There are also some notes made by a clerk at Bristow's concerning the other original material and its whereabouts, and also references to 'The Electric Telegraph: Was It Invented by Professor Wheatstone?' in two volumes by Sir W F Cooke, 1856-1857. The copies are easier to read than the extensively crossed originals.

Correspondence, comprising a private letter book 1863-1867, and correspondence and reports relating to the laying of the West Indies cable 1869-1870. The private letter book contains bound letters refering to cable laying in India, the West Indies and Brazil, resistance testing to find faults on cables in a long letter to Fleeming Jenkin, mining companies with which Bright was involved, the Steam Engine Improvement Company and the Railway Lubricating Company. The volume contains many blank pages and some pages have been cut out. Some letters are illegible because of the very faint copy, and there appears to be a double impression on some pages suggesting that a second letter may have been copied onto the same page. The loose correspondence relates to the setting up of the West India and Panama Telegraph Company and includes reports and correspondence concerning the laying of the cable. Some of the papers were used in a court case in 1872 between the West India and Panama Telegraph Company and the India Rubber Company for failing in their contractual obligations.