Add MS 88942/1/186

This notebook contains notes on mathematical and other scientific subjects. Regarding astronomy, the notebook contains many notes on recent comets. On 14 October 1825, Talbot observed the Pons comet (which reached perigee on 12 October) 'with the large telescope' (f. 7) . Talbot made notes on recent comets taken from a list produced by Heinrich Olbers and published in Schumacher’s Astronomische Abhandlungen. Talbot records observations of the occultation of one of Jupiter’s moons on 13 February 1826 and of the occultation of Saturn three days later. Furthermore, the notebook includes comments on experiments to show the rotation of the Earth (see notebook 'B', Add MS 88942/1/184). It also contains a method for finding the azimuth, an apparatus for a twenty feet reflecting telescope, and discussion of whether falling stars are in fact meteorites. There are more remarks on heliostats (see notebook 'C', Add MS 88942/1/185). It also contains notes on 'Heliostat', i.e. a description of a method to render a solar ray at rest and steady for some time, notes on a mirror movable on a vertical and horizontal axis, using strings to pull it as the sun moves to keep the ray in place. The notebook also contains notes on a 'Trick of Cards' (f. 27). The mathematical notes include solutions of indefinite integrales, algebraic equations, the geometrical meaning of integrals, and the calculation of areas using integrals (of hyperboles and parabolas). The analytical geometry is connected to celestial bodies, and so is the calculations of ellipses which is connected to comets (see the notes on astronomy). An ancient Greek greeting is inscribed on the inside front cover.

Whilst the body of the notebook was completed in 1825-26, it includes algebraic notes (now bound-in as ff. 1-4) dated 12-14 July, 1871.

Notebook started: 9 Oct 1825, at Clifton. Designated 'D' on outside and inside front cover.