Letter from Richard Cobden of the Board of Trade, Whitehall, London [from embossed stamp on paper] to M Jules le Chevalier St Andre, 29 May 1860. Headed: 'Private'. Referring to an article by M Mornand, drawn to his attention by Le Chevalier St Andre: 'The word "impuissance" is very insulting and very dangerous when applied to my country'. He warns France against 'the idea of England being less powerful in compassion with France than in former time,' and continues: 'New and henceforth supremacy at sea must depend entirely on steam power. " Our tonnage in sailing vessels as compared with France is at least 5 to 1 But the horse power of our steam mercantile marine as compared with yours is about 30 to 1.' He concludes: 'You know how I hate this topic. But depend on it England was never so much to be dreaded in a maritime war as at present.'

Autograph, with signature. The letter paper is inverted.

With the original envelope, on which the following later note has been added: 'Mille compliments à Monsieur E. Dentu. Ceci est l'autograph de Mr Cobden que je lui ai promise mais comme elle traite d'un sujet politique du moment, je désire qu'elle reste sous ce pli et ne soit communiquée à personne du vivant de Mr. Cobden.' On the dorse, above the broken seal: 'Décacheté: - le dimanche 30 avril 1869. E.D.'

Grant of letters patent (including a great seal) issued to Edwin William Thomas and Edward Nightscales for an improved self acting steam water lift and injector.

Records of the General Hydraulic Power Company Limited, 1882-1992, containing corporate and administrative records, accounting records, share details, property and legal records, personnel records, technical records and printed material for the General Hydraulic Power Company Limited and associated companies.

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.

Papers of Professor Harold Heywood, 1925-1973, comprising biographical papers; notebooks and papers, 1925-1957, covering Heywood's undergraduate career at Imperial College, work concerning dusts and sedimentation, sieving, particle size and pulverisation, including records of work undertaken during World War Two and after for the Ministry of Supply concerning the problems caused by dust during military operations in desert warfare, travel diaries; working papers on particles and pulverisation, 1929-1971; working papers on solar energy, 1946-1970, begun at Imperial College but mainly carried on at Woolwich and Loughborough, including notes and observations, travel diaries, correspondence and other papers relating to conferences and consultancies relating to solar energy; lectures and papers, 1924-1971; correspondence, 1933-1958; reports and publications, 1937-1948.

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.

Letters from Sir Robert Moray to his friend Alexander Bruce, Earl of Kincardine, also known as 'The Kincardine Papers'. Bruce was sick of the ague in Bremen for part of this time, and the letters were written to alleviate the tedium of of Bruce's illness, hence ranging over topics which might not otherwise have been the subjects of correspondence. They include accounts of chemical experiments in his laboratory, his interest in magnetism, medicine in all its aspects, horticulture, fuel, whale fishing, its risks and profits, coal mining, water wheels and tide mills, stone quarrying and the various qualities of different stones, the pumping works needed for undersea coal mines at Bruce's home at Culross in Fifeshire, even to the trees whose wood was best for pipelines, and the diameter of the bore best suited to the purpose. Familiarity is shown with mathematical and surveying instruments, with music, and all sorts of mechanical devices and especially clocks and watches, more particularly the taking out of a patent in respect of a clock for use at sea for finding longitude. Bruce is advised on the choice of books over a wide range of subjects. Moray includes anecdotes to amuse his ailing correspondent; he describes his quiet life and is enthusiastic about many of his chemical experiments. Notable at the end of the letters Moray added what he described as his Masonic signature - a pentagram which also occurs in his crest.

Papers, 1930-1962, concerning lectures and publications by Hart, notably correspondence, 1951-1961, mainly relating to lectures on Leonardo da Vinci, aeronautical engineering and other subjects; correspondence relating to the writing and publication of his work, including James Watt and the history of steam power (Henry Schuman, New York, [1949]), 1948, and The world of Leonard da Vinci, man of science, engineer and dreamer of flight (Macdonald, London, 1961), 1960-1962; typescripts of lectures on textile education, 1951, the scientific basis for Leonardo da Vinci's work in technology, 1952, and handicraft instruction; typescript of The world of Leonard da Vinci, man of science, engineer and dreamer of flight (Macdonald, London, 1961), 1960; copies of published articles by Hart on medieval and modern science, 1930-1955.

Papers of J R Edmonds, 1895-1917, comprising typescripts of papers read before Woolwich Polytechnic Engineering Society, on 'Pumps', 1896; 'The Slide Rule', 1898; 'Steam Turbines', 1903; notes on 'Motor Cars', 1896, 'Florence Nightingale', 1913; 'Women's Co-Operative Guild', [c 1905]; printed lectures on Experiments on a Simple Non-Condensing Steam Engine, 1900; De Laval Steam Turbines, 1902; Design of Marine Steam Turbines, 1908; Channel Tunnel, 1913, 1917.