From E. A. Darwin [17 January 1825]
[Cambridge]
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 Children1 (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.
Footnotes
Summary
Proposes a dry place for the apparatus for their laboratory and draws a plan for CD’s criticism.
Price has found black sediment in his tea, which was attracted to a magnet.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10
- From
- Erasmus Alvey Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- [Cambridge]
- Postmark
- C 17 JA 17 1825; Cambridge 52
- Source of text
- DAR 204: 8
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10,” accessed on 16 October 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 1