Three Letters from Maclear to Charles Michell 1846

Cape Observatory: Engineering Task 1846

Group of 3 manuscript letters. (Royal Observatory, Cape Town, 1846 (?)) to Michel (Michell?) from Thomas Maclear.

Refers to "the gigantic engineering task you have grappled with."

According to a note in Evans, page 45, Herschel persistently spelt his name wrong. It would seem that Maclear did too!!

Sir Thomas Maclear (17 March 1794 - 14 July 1879) was an Irish-born Cape Colony astronomer who became Her Majesty's astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope. He worked with John Herschel until 1838, performing a survey of the southern sky, and continued to perform important astronomical observations over several more decades.

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Collier Michell, KH (29 March 1793 in Exeter - 28 March 1851 in Eltham, London), later known as Charles Cornwallis Michell, was a British soldier, first surveyor-general in the Cape, road engineer, architect, artist and naturalist.

Each letter: 185mm x 230mm

R12,500