Papers of Professor John Frederic Daniell (1790-1845)
INTRODUCTION
Born 1790; educated by domestic tutors; worked at sugar refining business belonging to relative, 1808; attended lectures at medical school in Windmill Street, London, delivered by William Thomas Brande, Professor of Chemistry, Royal Institution, 1812; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, 1814, largely due to the support of patrons including Brande, George Pearson, physician, and Samuel Lysons, antiquary and vice-president of the Royal Society, but also for having established a reputation for meteorological experiments carried out at a laboratory in his father's house, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, and at which Daniell accumulated a substantial collection of rocks and minerals, [1812-1817]; undertook geological tour of British Isles with Brande, 1815; launched the Journal of the Royal Institution with Brande, 1816; tour of France, Germany, Switzerland, 1816; meteorological observations commence, 1819; invented hygrometer, 1820; work on the atmosphere of hothouses for Horticultural Society, [1824]; collaboration with Michael Faraday, [1824-1845]; Director of Imperial Continental Gas Company including tour of France and Germany to promote gas lighting, 1825; helped establish Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1827; resigned from Imperial Continental Gas Company to concentrate on researches, 1829; developed version of pyrometer for measuring temperatures, 1830; Professor of Chemistry, King's College London, 1831-1845; collaboration with William Hallowes Miller, Professor of Minerology, University of Cambridge, on spectra, [1833]; developed Daniell constant cell, 1835-1837; taught chemistry, Military School of the East India Company, Addiscombe, Surrey, 1835-1844; Copley Medal, Royal Society, 1836; member, committee of the Royal Society on behalf of the Admiralty to standardise meteorological observations throughout the British Empire, 1836; Foreign Secretary, Royal Society, 1839-1845; member, Admiralty commission on protecting ships from lightning, 1839; died 1845.
The bulk of the papers were presented by a relative, Miss Daniell, with additional material presented by Canon G W Daniell, grandson, and Samuel Hunter Christie, mathematician.
The collection comprises correspondence, mainly concerning meteorological readings and Daniell's religious beliefs, lecture notebooks and printed pamphlets on meteorology and the battery, certificates of membership of learned societies and obituaries and biographies, 1821-1990. It notably includes correspondence between Daniell and friends and colleagues such as Charles Babbage, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, engineer, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, Michael Faraday, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, chemist, John Frederic William Herschel, astronomer, James Clerk Ross, polar navigator, principally concerning meteorology and meteorological instruments, the chemistry of batteries, the publication of Daniell's books and articles, the management of the Royal Society, London, Daniell's religious beliefs, 1821-1857; manuscript copies of lectures delivered by Daniell including at King's College London and the Military School of the East India Company, Addiscombe, Surrey, 1831-1845; printed articles and pamphlets by Daniell or reviews of his work, including On voltaic combinations (London, 1836), reviews of Meteorological essays and observations (London, 1823), 1823-1860; certificates acknowledging Daniell's membership of various learned societies including National Institute for the Promotion of Science, Washington, US, 1839-1845; obituaries and biographies of Daniell, 1845-1990.
The correspondence is arranged alphabetically, the remainder thematically and in chronological order.
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services.
English.
King's College London College Archives: in-correspondence (Ref: KA/IC), Council minutes (Ref: KA/C/M), photographs (Ref: K/PHOTO), College Calendars; Royal Society, London: letters to Sir John Lubbock, 1833-1842 (Ref: LUB); University College London: letters to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1828-1838 (Ref: SDUK).