Nine letters, November 1800, from Thomas Young to Dr W H Wollaston [William Hyde Wollaston, 1766-1828, chemist and physicist]. Addressed from 48 Welbeck Street to Cecil Street, Strand [London]. The letters concern their respective research and experiments on dispersion of crystalline and contain references to the work of Ramsden [Jesse Ramsden, 1735-1800, mathematician, optician, physicist and astronomical instrument maker] and to Newtonian theory of dispersion.
The paper in which the letters had been wrapped by Dr Wollaston is a printed form issued by the City of London Lying-in Hospital for Married Women at the corner of the City Road, on which a Mary Doran records her thanks for the safe delivery of a daughter, 8 May 1799. This form is addressed to Rev F Wollaston [presumably W H Wollaston’s father, Francis].
The letters were donated to the Cambridge Philosophical Society by Howard W Elphinstone: the file includes a related letter from him, addressed from Wimbledon Park, 17 December 1910.