George III's Purchase of Herschel Reflectors

Hoskin Michael , The Herschel partnership (Cambridge, 2003), 32.

So for example when the leading amateur Alexander Aubert succeeded in confirming that the Pole Star is double, Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, wrote to Herschel to congratulate him, Hoskin , Partnership, 46.

RAS MS Herschel W.1/13.M.81.

RAS MS Herschel W.7/8, 35–36.

RAS MS Herschel W.5/12.1, experiment 264.

Ibid., experiments 269, 275.

Hoskin , Partnership, 54.

Ibid., 59.

For the visitors in Herschel's eightieth year, see Hoskin Michael , “Herschel's 40ft reflector: Funding and functions”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxiv (2003), 1–32, p. 21.

Ibid., 85.

RAS MS Herschel W.1/1, 165.

Lindsay E. M. , “The astronomical instruments of H.M. King George III presented to Armagh Observatory”, The Irish astronomical journal, ix/3 (Sept. 1969).

The King bought from J. H. Schröter all his astronomical instruments and gave them to the University of Göttingen, though with the proviso that Schröter be allowed to retain possession of them during his lifetime, see the article on Schröter in Dictionary of scientific biography.

Hoskin , Partnership, 82.

Maurer Andreas , “A compendium of all known Herschel telescopes”, Journal of the Antique Telescope Society, issue 14 (winter 1998), 4–15.

Fowler Marian , Blenheim: Biography of a palace (London, 1989), 114, 116.

The later correspondence of George III, ed. by Aspinall A. , i (Cambridge 1962), letter 656.

RAS MS Herschel W.1/13.B.152.

On de Brühl see the entry in Dictionary of national biography.

Maurer , op. cit.

Dreyer J. L. E. (ed.), The scientific papers of Sir William Herschel (London, 1912), i, p. l. Herschel always charged in excess of £200 for a 10ft, and the reduced price presumably makes allowance either for the work done by the King's cabinet maker, or was a discount for quantity.