Darwin Correspondence Project

[Cambridge] -- -- %%SN [DIAG] My dear Bobby.

I have been indulging myself in the pleasure of scheming, & I here send you the fruits of it. The Lab:, as we know to our cost, wants a dry place to keep our apparatus in, and the above drawing is a plan for that purpose, but from not remembering the dimensions I have been obliged to draw it by my eye, & not by any scale. A.A you must understand are the chimneys as they now stand, & I propose under the arch to open a window looking into the drying yard, this is represented at C. Next, to inclose a small space sufficient to sit or turn round it with lath & plaster. I should put the laths double with a space between of one or two inches as figured at B,B. I have drawn the door at D, which I make as narrow as possible, & perhaps double like a Rumford ash-door (wh. you may see in ye scullery). I should floor it with wood raised up an inch from the bricks, & having a chimney on both sides, if any out-of-doors place can be dry I should think this would. There might be a shelf before the window, which would be an excellent place for weighing &c. and being South would do very well for any experiments with the Sun's rays, which is also a desideratum in our Lab.

I have drawn this with dotted lines, those on each side may be either shelves or drawers.

Go to the Lab. with a rule in your hand & consider about it, & let me know what you think.

Price in drinking tea observed a black heavy sediment constantly form, & by degrees he collected a small pill box full. He gave me a few grains to examine, & I found it be entirely attracted by the magnet. Is not this curious? We are going to try how much per cent is in the tea, & then send it to Children (Editor of An. of Phil.) to examine it & what else he may please to do.

I wish when you write you would send me a piece of Plat. Wire. Put it in the fold of the first page & gum it fast & I dare say it will pass muster with the post office—

Good Bye. Let me hear soon | yours, E. D.

N.B. Keep the plan at all events.