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Letters to Thomas Young from Messrs Arago, Biot, Bessel and Bergelius.

Works on botanical classification [by Nathaniel Matthew Wolf] in two parts comprising 1. 'Tentamen botanicae characteristicae sistens genera plantarum perfectiorum' , pp.1-117 and 2. 'Article d'une leavee de l'auteur, addressee a JHM, au sujet de sa botanique characteristique, pp.119-128.

Diplomas and other honours given by various academies and societies to William Hyde Wollaston.

Laboratory notebooks and records of C T R Wilson.

Papers relating to the proposal of Zachariah Williams for the revealing a secret of a machine invented by him, to be used at sea for making salt-water fresh and drinkable, together with the inventor's letter to the Lords of the Admiralty on the subject.

Letters from various scientists to Walter White, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society. With occasional material addressed to Charles Richard Weld and others. Usually on Royal Society business.

The archive correspondence can be characterized as the routine treatment of important events. In 1863, for example, Richard Owen wrote to White with brief instructions for his paper describing the feathered dinosaur archaeopteryx. Occasionally the letters are more significant for the Society's history. In an extended note of 1865, ex Royal Society President the Earl of Rosse 'a plain well-grown man, farmer like in appearance' discussed the merits of signing an election certificate for Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). 'My opinion...was that it would be better to take the broad view and to elect men of great abillity...so as to strengthen the Society in carrying out, in the largest sense, its great object, that of improving natural science'. Tennyson was duly elected, an event which must have pleased White. The assistant secretary had become friendly with the Poet Laureate in the 1850s and White's published diary left a vivid picture of Tennyson reading aloud his Arthurian romances in the offices of the Royal Society.

School and university notebooks of David Hardy Whiffen.

Papers of John Hugh Westcott relating to radar and adaptive control including report on CA [coastal artillery] no.1 and Mark IV radar equipment ('James'), with supplementary papers on control engineering at Imperial College, London, and some photographs.

Three letters of application for Waynflete Professorship of Physiology, two of J N Langley and Charles Scott Sherington dated 1895; one undated from Francis Gotch.

'The age of the Oldway human skeleton' by E J Waylan, report of 25 pages and 2 blueprints with file of correspondence, 2 September 1932.

Papers of Henry Watts including lecture on Australia by Watts, Watts' passport and pamphlet publicising a fund set up to support his widow and children.

Manuscript of a treatise on logic by John Wallis, 1685.

Scrap book of drawings by Richard Waller attached is a report by Dr Christopher J Brooke entitled 'Avebury - Multispectral Photographic Examination of manuscript drawing in pencil by John Aubrey' made 23 February 1989 referring to MS/131/67.

Visitors book to the Sir Isaac Newton Exhibition, 13-31 August 1951.

Account by Francis Vernon of his travels through Greece, with numerous copies of old inscriptions and plates. Also a letter dated 15 July 1709 from Richard Mead to the Reverend Dr Chisull.

Cartoons of eminent men of the day, 18 of which are bound together in a volume including photographs and signatures of the individuals; the volume is inscribed " C S Sherrington 1927". The cartoons were published in conjunction with articles by "Jehu Junior" in Vanity Fair between 1869 and 1912. Some of the cartoons are accompanied by the text of the article. Most of the subjects were Fellows of the Royal Society.

Notebook of John Tyndall 'Number II, Thermometer observations als Lusgen 7 October to 15 October'. No year.

Two tracts relating to Confucius and Confucianism: Tract 1 'Ta Mio. Confucius philosophus totius imperii Sinensis Universalis Magtr', a translation of a Chinese original, by Johannes Rodriguez, 1763 and Tract 2 'Traduzione del Tciuntzui di Confuso fatta da Luigi de Poirot'.

Written in England. Contains the curious characters known as the Boetian contractions, and is a valuable document for the history of arithmetic. The treatise commences on the Roman abacal system, and afterwards proceeds to give an explanation of the Eastern Boetian system with altered characters, and with a complete adoption of the advantages of local position. In Folio 2, recto, line 5, the author says that he will expound 'quaedam de numerorum scientia. regulis uidelicet algorismi' and on Folio 3, verso, he refers to Pithagoras, Nicomachus, Apuleius and Boethius. The text ends on the first line of Folio 34, recto, and is followed by eight lines in a semi-current 13th century hand.

Folio 1, recto ' Prefatio sequentis operis. Vt ait salomon.. punge oculum. et profert lacrimam. punge cor' et profert sensum.....'

Folio 4, verso ' De impari numero..'

Folio 6, verso, line 6, ' Divisio algorismi '. The divisions are given as folows; ' digitus, mediato, multiplicatio, divisio '

Folio 8, recto, title in red in margin, ' Qualiter digitus multiplicat digitum '

Folio 9, recto, line 15 ' Qualiter articulus multiplicatur per articulum '

Folio 9, verso, line 13, heading in red, ' Qualiter digitus multiplicat articulum '

Folio 10, recto, line 10, heading in red, ' Qualiter compositus per compositum multiplicatur '

Folio 10, verso, heading in margin, ' Qualiter compositus multiplicat compositum non eundem habens articulum '

Folio 11, recto, bottom line, heading in red ' Regulo ab uno inequalibus '

Folio 12, recto, line 6, heading in red, ' Regula ab uno in equalibus binario adjecto '

Folio 12, verso, line 8, heading in red ' De duplicatione '

Folio 13, recto, line 5, heading in red, ' De pari adjecto '

Folio 13, verso, line 6, heading in red, ' De impari adjecto '

Folio 14, verso, heading in margin, ' De proposito secundum novenarium dispositum '

Folio 15, recto, line 7-8, heading in red, ' De significationibus et nominibus figarum et locorum '
Transcript extract from line 14 ' Prima itaque omnium est igin. 1. id est unitas. Secunda andras. 2. id est binarius. Tercia ormis. 3. id est ternarius. Quarta arbas. 4. id est quaternarius. Quinta quimas. 5. id est quinarius. Sexta caltis. 6. id est senarius. Septima zemis. 7. id est septenarius. octava celentis. 8. id est octonarius. Nona cemenias. 9. id est novenarius. Singule ataque figure in quocumque loco sint sui ipsius exprimunt significationem. Nunquam enim figura unitatis officium binarii sibi usurpabit, nec binarius ternarii, nec ternarius quaternarii, nec quelibet ceterarum quod alter significare poterit. Ad majorem itaque evidentiam significationes locorum ponamus. primo ita loco posita igin seipsam, id es unitatem, significat. Secundo denarium. Tercio centenarium. Quarto millenarium. Quinto decem milia. Sexto centum milia. Septimo mille milia. Decimo mille mille milia. Undecimo decies milies mille milia. Duodecimo centies milies mille milia. Terciodecimo milies milies mille milia, et sic usque in infinitam singulorum decuplationem locorum extenditur. Similiter autem et andras rimo loco seipsam, id est binarium, significat. Secundo xx. Tercio cc. Quarto duo milia. Quinto xx. Sexto cc. Septima mm. et sic per cetera loca eodem cemate et cetere figure secundum propriam differentiam decuplabutn singulos articulos per loca singula. Est adhucet decima figura cujus nulla significatio est, sed tamen per loca disposita ceterarum significationes auget vel minuit. Dicitur autemzifera, et taliter depingitur 0. Sciendum autem quod omnes figure versus sinistram scribi debent, quia sic vim extendunt. Sed e converso literali ordine legi. '

Folio 17, verso, line 6, heading in red, ' De subtractione'

Folio 18, verso, line 8, heading in red, 'De dupli``catione'.

Letters and papers of Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe including scientific letters to T E Thorpe from colleagues, with documents relating to the Chemical Warfare Committee of the International Law Association. Containing also Thorpe's own letters to family members, his testimonials for work appointments and obituary notices.

Photographs recording the visits of Sir Henry Gerard Thornton abroad, on business for the Royal Society including visits made to Ankara in April 1952; Israel in May 1952; Delhi in 1954 and Russia in 1956.

Notes on a series of lectures given by Joseph John Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory, October 1906 to December 1907.

The papers are extensive but by no means comprehensive. There is no personal or biographical material and very little record of Thompson's research. On the other hand his contributions to international science and football are extensively documented. There is a very full record of Thompson's Foreign Secretaryship of the Royal Society and his organisation of the European chemical conferences (EUCHEM) and substantial documentation of his work for ICSU and IUPAC, including the Commission on Molecular Spectroscopy and the Triple Commission on Spectroscopy. Thompson's contributions to international relations were not limited to science (or football) and he kept detailed records of his Chairmanship from 1972 of the Great Britain - China Committee (later Great Britain - China Centre). The football papers are substantial, particularly for the last decade of Thompson's life, and thus there is full documentation of his Chairmanship of the Football Association and of the many problems facing football at that time, including hooliganism amongst its supporters.

Paper for reading before the Royal Society entitled 'Theora Magnetis explicata e sola virium attractivarum universalium natura, elaborata per Franciscum Intze.....Claudiopoli Transylvaniae MDCCCXXV'.

'The Life of Confucius' by Louis Poirot, 'Avviso al Lettore' included as an inset.

Original observations of levels by the Thames Levelling Commission, 1830 .

Correspondence of Dr Brook Taylor, Secretary of the Royal Society on mathematical subjects with Professor Keil, Mr Machin, Bernouilli, the Abbot Conti, the Comte Raymond de Montmort, 1712-1717.

A small collection of papers of Sir Arthur George Tansley, mainly related to the formation of organisations, in the period 1918-1921, that aimed to promote pure and applied scientific research. The bulk of the collection consists of papers relating to Tansley's involvement in the Scientific Research Association. The Scientific Research Association's papers include rules, promotional leaflets and circulars, financial material and a relatively large amount of correspondence. A smaller amount of material survives for the National Union of Scientific Workers including rule booklets, membership lists, reports from meetings, agenda and promotional leaflets and circulars. Only a few items are preserved in this collection for the Federation of Technical and Scientific Associations and the Cambridge Research Group. The published articles and reports at AT/5 mainly concern issues related to the funding, support and the general state of scientific research. As a whole the collection reveals many problems faced by those who wished to organise research work after the first world war, such as the problem of rival organisations created to promote research whose aims overlapped, and disagreements over how and whether research could be organised. For example a letter from the Royal Society to the Scientific Research Association commented that 'lines of development' were 'discovered not by councils or committees but by the instinct of individuals, and the less this is trammelled by organization the better' (AT/2/6/1/42). The article 'Research and Organisation' at AT/2/3/15 was written in an attempt to answer such criticisms by arguing that research could be organised. Other issues also surface in the correspondence of the Scientific Research Association. For example one letter opposed support for any scheme founded on government funding as 'government endowment will, in the long run, corrupt Science...' (AT/2/6/2/17). There were also disagreements as to whether emphasis should be laid upon 'the promotion of scientific research' or 'the economic interest' of research workers which seems to have contributed to a division between the National Union of Scientific Workers and the Scientific Research Association (AT/2/4/3).

'Tables of Specific Gravities extracted from various Authors with Notes. To which is prefixed a Critic on the Authors of these Experiments' compiled by Richard Davies.

Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life by William Stukeley, 1752, bound in at the back is the following printed tract 'The life of Sir Isaac Newton with an Account of his Writings. London. J. Roberts, Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane, 1728'.

Report on studies at the Protectorate Department of Agriculture's entomological laboratory at Kukum, entitled 'Studies of Soil and Litter Fauna in the British Soloman Islands Protectorate': summary of work carried out November 1964 - August 1965.

Account book of Bindon Blood Stoney, 1860-1908.

Methodo Inverso dos Limites ou Desenvoluimento geral das Funcoens algorithmicas em Series par Francisco de Borja Garcao Stockler.

1. Statii Thebais, cum glossis interlinearibus et scholis marginalibus. folio 1, recto

2. Nota de tempore Statii folio 122 verso

Incip. 'Queritur quo tempore Staciu,s'

Desin. 'Titus et Domitianus sibi caveant'

In the front is written; 'Liber Regalis Societatis London. ex dono RVD Nathaniel Vincent, DD Feb. 1, 1692/3'

Written in England. Erased inscription at foot of folio 1. The figure or letter 'x' at the head of folio 1 may be a pressmark.

Drawings from Richard Spruce's travels across Northern South America, primarily the Amazon and Orinoco river systems, throughout Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Venezeuela and the Guyana highlands. Included are several renderings of indigenous picture-writing figures Spruce found in the Guyana Highlands, with notes on their possible origin and meaning, portraits of local people from nine different nations of the Orinoco and Rio Negro with notes thereon, drawings of notable landscapes in the region, vegetation and sundry objects from local villages.
Drawn on for 'Notes of a botanist on the Amazon and Andes' (1908).

A calligraphic sample book, presumably compiled to demonstrate the skills of the unknown artist. Containing samples of writing and drawing styles, including some fine natural history drawings of freshwater animals.

f.1: fanciful decorative border including vignettes of indians with feather headresses, birds, snails, rams' heads, sphinxes, architectural columns, candles and paintings.

f.2: illustrations of four types of freshwater fishes: barbel (top); pike (bottom); bream (left) and gudgeon (right). With outer and inner borders of very small and patterned calligraphy.

f.3: specimen of calligraphy: Proverbs 16: 7-9 commencing "Wenn dem Herrn..." and ending "...aber der Herr allein gibt dass es fortgehe". Highly decorated 'W', using flowers, leaves and fruits.

f.4: seven lines of text with letters staggered at the line centre. Accompanied by a freely drawn bird [a swan on water?] and an illustration of a crayfish or lobster.

f.5r: three columns of written text, various styles and forms of address, commencing "Dantiscanae urbis origo"

f.5v: three coluns of written text, various styles and forms of address, commencing "Qua' tibi depictum..."

The presentation is noted in a meeting of the Royal Society of 26 February 1700/1: "Mr Owen was permitted to be present. He presented a fine piece of writing in a book done on Vellum at Dantzick [Gdansk, Poland]. He was thanked for it". [JBO/10 p.212].

Correspondence to and from James Sowerby and other family members from naturalists and collectors in Britain and abroad.

Correspondence of the Sowerby family, chiefly letters to James Sowerby. Correspondents include: George Arnott Walker Arnott; Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward; Etheldred Bennett; William Bingley; James Clealand; Richard Cotton; Francis Crow; James Dalton; George Don; Richard Duppa; William Henry Fitton; Leonard Horne; John Harris; Adrian Hardy Haworth; Henry Heuland; George Hibbert; John Coakley Lettsom; John Lewis; Gideon Mantell; Thomas John Newbold; George Henry Noehden; Charles Panse; Thomas Joseph Pettigrew; Joseph Ellison Portlock; Thomas Purton; Philip Rashleigh; Joseph Sabine; Henry Sheppard; William Travis; Patrick Walker; Henry Warburton; William Wedderburn and Thomas Stamford Raffles.

Papers collected by Sir Robert Southwell.

Sir Robert Southwell's Lecture on water at the Royal Society, 8 Apr 1675.

'The Marine Atlas. A New Invention for the Preservation of Ships and Security of Mariners. Humbly offered to the Public in its unfinished state, as an Excitement to Industry and Ingenuity', by Thomas South, dedicated to Dr Blagden, Secretary to the Royal Society, 12 December 1786. There are documents at the end of this volume proving that the author had a claim to the prior invention of a material for making flexible air vessels, as applicable to nautical purposes. A French memoir on the same subject, as well as a specimen of the material, are inserted.

Some observations on the crystalline lens by C Harris, including numerous graphs, prepared for the Glassworkers Cataract Committee, but never used.

Manuscript of a paper 'Astronomical Experiment on the Peak of Tenerife, carried out under the sanction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. By Professor C. Piazzi Smyth. Communicated by G.B.Airy, Esq., Astronomer Royal' in 'Philosophical Transactions' Volume 148 (1858) pages 465-534. Folder of drawings and watercolours, including tipped-in stereoscopic cards. Received 2 June 1857, read 18 June 1857. Last two pages in the manuscript provide an explanatory account of the photographs, how they were taken and developed, and what materials were used.

Three volumes of photographs taken by Charles Piazzi Smyth, at Clova, Ripon, North Yorkshire, where he had retired from his post of Astronomer Royal of Scotland. Printed title page in first volume; 'Cloud -Forms that have been; to the glory of God their Creator, and the wonderment of learned men. Recorded by Instant Photographs, taken at Clova, Ripon, in 1892, 1893 and 1894', prefaced by an introduction and compendious name, number and date list; but followed up, after the photographs, by a special, and continuous, day to day, meteorological journal, in manuscript. Concluded in the last volume by some discussion on a few of the results hoped to have been obtained.

The working drawings of John Smeaton, civil engineer. They illustrate his researches on waterwheels and applied mechanics, and the relative efficiency of overshot as opposed to undershot wheels. With supplementary engravings and manuscript notes.

Working papers and correspondence of Sir Francis (Franz) Eugene Simon. Scientific notebooks in the collection date from 1919-1934, largely the period of Simon's researches on low temperature physics at the Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut of Berlin University, and subsequently at Breslau. Other notes and manuscripts for lectures and articles are post 1930, while a large group of correspondence files are from the years 1922-1956, providing a full account of Simon's dealings with many fellow scientists and scientific organisations. Individual letter files concern V.M. Goldsmidt, Max Born, Gwyn Owain Jones and Nevill Mott among many other notable figures. Details of Simon's involvement in atomic energy development are to be found in papers on uranium isotope separation (MAUD Committee notes) and UK Atomic Energy Authority correspondence. Simon's professional appointments as head of the Clarendon Laboratory and as science correspondent to the Financial Times are represented by substantial groups of letters. There are twelve notebooks with some associated papers; the series also includes files of lectures, articles, cuttings and souvenirs, including photographs, with files of correspondence. Two later additions to the collection consist of correspondence and files highlighting Simon's contacts with industrial firms, universities and international organisations.

Copies of letters from William Sherard, Consul of the Turkey Company at Smyrna, 1703.

Correspondence of William Sherard in five volumes, indicating his wide circle of correspondents and showing his generosity in gifts of specimens, seeds, living plants, books and subscriptions. One volume consists of copies of letters from Sherard during his time as Turkey Company's Consul at Smyrna. The great majority of these letters are concerned with botanical subjects: a fair number relate to Greek and Roman coins: a very few are of an official character, and there are some addressed to James Sherard, William's younger brother. There are also many rough drafts of William Sherard's own letters included.

Mercantile Papers of Dr William Sherard, also known as Sherard Additional Letters.

Papers of William Sharpey including copy letters, correspondence including from Neil Arnott, George Gabriel Stokes and James Newton Heale and notes by Sharpey, some on Royal Society business.