Dear blog,

I’m in London now for a month to visit various archives, checking transcriptions of Humphry Davy letters against the originals and transcribing newly found letters. So far I’ve been to the Institution of Engineering and Technology (http://www.theiet.org/) and the Science Museum Library, which is in Imperial College Library.

It’s been lots of fun – I’ve read collections of letters, so letters to Michael Faraday in the IET and letters to Davy’s family (his mother, Grace, and sisters Betsy, Kitty, and Grace, and brother John). I’ve learned of his love of potatoes and salty fish from Penzance (he’s often asking his mother to send them to him), and it’s odd and slightly unnerving to read letters that cover a person’s whole life, from his initial excitable letters sent from the Pneumatic Institute to his rather more grumpy and stately letters as President of the Royal Institution. These letters do humanise Davy too; he clearly loves his family dearly, is hugely proud of his brother’s achievements, and misses his birthplace.

There’s an intriguing incident referred to in the letters that I would like to get to the bottom of concerning a Mr Millet, who has caused Davy some trouble in previous years because he married Davy’s sister Betsy though he had not a permanent situation (which Davy repeatedly tries to procure for him). Mr Millet (I think he is Mr John Baulderson Millet) is involved in some incident and is to be tried by the Admiralty (he has some position with them) early in 1826. Davy gives reassurance in his letters, convinced that Mr Millet will be acquitted and that there will be a verdict of accidental death. The story is that a pistol went off when Mr Millet fell but I don’t yet know the identity of the victim . This is all very exciting and none of these letters have been published before.

Plans are coming on well for event 4, which promises to be lots of fun, and the LitSciMed programme will feature in an article for the British Society for the History of Science newsletter, Viewpoint. Watch out for that.

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer.

All best,

Sharon