Thomas Jefferson to John Vaughan, 31 August 1809
To John Vaughan
Monticello Aug. 31. 09.
Dear Sir
Your favors of the 19th & 20th instant are both recieved and I thank you for the Prospectus of mr Humboldt’s work, which I had not seen before. I now return you his letter and the Prospectus de vases antiques which promises a splendid addition to the arts. Baron Humboldt’s work is voluminous & expensive, but it will add much new & valuable information to several branches of science. I have recieved one part of it and have some others on their way. one part has unfortunately miscarried, & is that which I should have valued most, on the geography of plants. I thank you for your kind offers of service. I have had too many proofs of your friendly attentions to doubt of them, & have used them heretofore too freely not to give you apprehensions of similar trouble hereafter whenever occasion shall arise. I salute you with great esteem & respect.
Th: Jefferson
P.S. can you inform me whether the instrument called the Distiller’s syphon is to be had in Philadelphia, and what one sufficient to work in a cistern of 8. feet cube would cost? I believe they are usually made of tin. the machine I mean is described in the 3d. vol. of the Scientific dialogues pa. 195. Pl. IV. 29.
PoC (MHi); above postscript: “J. Vaughan esq.”; endorsed by TJ. Enclosures: see Vaughan to TJ, 19 Aug. 1809.
geography of plants: Alexander von Humboldt, Tableaux de la Nature (Paris, 1808; no. 646). Jeremiah Joyce was the author of the scientific dialogues (note to TJ to Joseph Milligan, 7 July 1809).
Index Entries
- American Philosophical Society; librarian of search
- antiquities; and vases search
- distiller’s syphon search
- household articles; distiller’s syphon search
- Humboldt, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander, Baron von; Nivellement barométrique search
- Humboldt, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander, Baron von; Tableaux de la Nature search
- Humboldt, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander, Baron von; TJ praises scientific writings of search
- Humboldt, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander, Baron von; Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent search
- Institut de France; and work on ancient vases search
- Joyce, Jeremiah; Scientific Dialogues, intended for the Instruction and Entertainment of Young People search
- machines; distiller’s syphon search
- Maisonneuve, Dubois, ed.; Peintures des Vases Antiques search
- Nivellement barométrique (Humboldt) search
- Peintures des Vases Antiques (ed. Maisonneuve) search
- Scientific Dialogues, intended for the Instruction and Entertainment of Young People (J. Joyce); TJ cites search
- Tableaux de la Nature (Humboldt) search
- Vaughan, John; letters to search
- Vaughan, John; librarian of American Philosophical Society search
- Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent (Humboldt) search