31From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 12 July 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
The Polygraphs for mr Volney, Commodore Preble and the President’s Secretary have been all recieved in good order and are found good. the portable one for myself is also recieved, and is approved in every respect except perhaps in one part, on which I have not had trial enough to decide. it seems to copy the first 4. or 5. lines of the page with defects of nearly half the lines: sometimes...
32From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 6 October 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Sep. 23. was recieved on my arrival here, and I have no doubt that between yourself and mr Hawkins the Polygraph will be rendered perfect. for the one I have at Monticello you were so kind as to send me a pair of brass pen-cases with the screw top and for recieving the small bit of a quill pen, which I found so much better suited to my handwriting and so easily susceptible of...
33From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 23d. is recieved. it was never till this day that I have been able to know of any person going to Philadelphia in the stage, so as to put the Polygraph under their care. Capt Jones of Philadelphia was so kind as to take charge of it. he left this this morning in the mail stage, & consequently the Polygraph will have arrived there one day before you recieve this. in the same box...
34From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 23 April 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Polygraph gave me so much satisfaction that I thought it worth while to bestow some time in contriving one entirely suited to my own convenience: it was therefore the subject of my meditations on the road, and on my arrival here I made the drawings which I now send you. I have adopted your idea of having it in the form of a desk to sit on one’s writing table, & not that of a box to shut...
35From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 29 March 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 12th. is duly recieved, and I have no doubt the idea you suggest is perfectly sound that the glasses of spectacles should perfectly accord with one another. the surfaces of every lens for a spectacle should be a portion of that of a sphere, and not only should the two convexities correspond in position, but also with the lines of vision from the two eyes. my improvements in...
36From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 November 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 12th. is recieved. the circumstance which has guided us in fixing on the subjects of study for my grandson has been the exclusive possession of Philadelphia of your Museum, the Anatomical dissections & mr Hamilton’s garden. add the Surgical operations at the hospital. I thought these would fill up his whole time; but as it is thought they will leave him time to attend the...
37From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 17 November 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your favor of the 14th. I continue extremely satisfied with the facility of writing with the new Polygraph. mr. Hawkins’s box may be considerably improved in it’s form. instead of having it in the form Fig. 1. the upper lid should on the hinge side be bevilled off at a.b. thro’ it’s whole length (from West to East.) then when you wish to use it, not for copying, but as a...
38From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 24 September 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I am to return you a thousand & a thousand thanks for your letter of Aug. 30. & particularly your kind offer to recieve my grandson into your family. I consider him as thereby placed in the best school of morality & good habits which could have been found for him, & secured against the only fears we entertained for him in your city. on the subject of his habits & dispositions they are exactly...
39From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 1 January 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved your letter of Nov. 28. and the apparatus for carrying mr Hawkins’s pen-case. but I have tried an expedient which I think is better. that is to make the moveable pen case longer, that it may recieve a longer knib & have more spring. they hold the knib as firmly as possible, & they unite the advantages of your adjusting screw, & the being left in the ink holder while the polygraph is...
40From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 20 April 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
According to my letter of the 5th. from Monticello, I sent the desk-Polygraph by water viâ Richmond, addressed to you; & brought with me your 8vo. one, & my model which are now sent to the stage office to be forwarded. in making one for me according to my model, I leave to yourself entirely the thickness of the stuff, so that whatever that is more than half an inch, will be added to the...
41Thomas Jefferson to Charles Wilson Peale, 22 August 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been for some time endeavoring to procure bills of some bank in Philadelphia to enable me to remit you the balance of 49. D 5½ C due you on account of my grandson . finding there is little hope of this, I have this day inclosed to my friend mr Barnes of Georgetown , bills of that place, & prayed him to exchange them for a draught of the Washington bank on that of the US. at Philadelphia...
42From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 6 January 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
The bears went from this place in good health about a fortnight ago, and I hope are with you by this time. this is the first moment I have had as much leisure as to notify you of it. they were in a cage which they had outgrown, & suffered a little for it. I had them in larger quarters till their departure. they are perfectly gentle, knowing no other benefactor than man from the time of their...
43From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 December 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I have safely recieved my Polygraph, with which I am now writing, and find it to answer well every where except a small place in the N.W. corner, which is of little consequence. in fact none of them probably can be perfect in every point of the whole field which their dimensions can cover. I now inclose you the 10. D. for the silver pens, & am sorry you did not enable me to judge of the cost...
44From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 May 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I arrived here the night before last, and yesterday recieved from the post office your favor of Apr. 29. with others which had been accumulating there for me. I hasten to answer it in order that the polygraph desk you have in hand for me may have the benefit of the improvements you mention. to wit the screw to move the stay pen. the improvement in the pen-bar. Hawkins’s improvement by a stay...
45From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 May 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
By Capt. Hand who sailed 4. days ago, I sent the desk polygraph you left here, and the box of minerals. freight paid here. in the former box is a book for mr Vaughan. with the minerals was a list of those furnished by mr King. but there were some sent me by Capt. Lewis which you will find described in the inclosed list from him. the more I reflect on the improvement of your son by projecting...
46From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 18 February 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
One of the polygraphs bespoke being intended for the Bey of Tunis himself, & the other two for his officers, it may be well to distinguish one of them by silver boxes in the way you propose. there will be no occasion for a plate to engrave any thing on. when done, they are to be sent here; and they will be less liable to injury coming by water, if a conveyance occurs. I salute you with...
47From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 13 March 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of Feb. 21. was recieved in due time. a public vessel will be going to France & England once in every month during the embargo, on board of which mr Rembrandt Peale can obtain his passage by application to the Captain as usual. very soon after I came into office I found it not only proper but necessary that I should make it a rule never to write letters of recommendation to persons...
48From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
In mine of the 1 st I mentioned that I would send my other Polygraph by mr Millar of Germantown a Student of ours who would return after vacation. I did so and he promised to call on you with it on his arrival in Philadelphia, which would be about the 20 th since that I have had full trial of my gold pen points which I recieved safely in yours of the 9 th they answer so perfectly and so much...
49From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 14 June 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I send you by this post the drawings for another Polygraph desk. I take for it’s foundation that I am now writing on, which is indeed very nearly perfect. wherever therefore I have not proposed an alteration, I wish the new one to be exactly as the old. I adopt exactly the same length & breadth of desk. the position of the writing machinery is left precisely the same, & the machinery itself....
50From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 27 April 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 23d. is recieved. I think the improvement by your son, of lengthening the pen-bar to the left is an excellent one. by lessening the breadth of the rhomboids or parallels, it lessens the projection of their corners when folded up, and of course permits a shortening of the polygraph from East to West. I think it will enable you to reduce that dimension to 16. I. in the clear...
51From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 19 August 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved two days ago the polygraph lately sent me . it arrived in good order, except that the forked spiral spring which suspends the bar with the friction cylinder was broke. in attempting to connect it again by links it broke repeatedly, and tho’ I succeeded at last so as to use it, yet it is become so short as to perform it’s functions poorly. perhaps you could send me a new spring (for...
52Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Apr. 3. came to hand on the 23 d of April . I have no doubt that the marked differences between the elephant & our colossal animal entitle him to a distinct appellation. one of those differences, & a striking one, is in the protuberances on the grinding surface of the teeth, somewhat in the shape of the mamma, mastos, or breast of a woman, which has induced Cuvier to call it the...
53From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 13 November 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your favor of the 10th. and in reply observe that an adjusting screw to the pen is absolutely indispensible in my writing. if such an one can be adapted to the whole pen, it will be preferable to the nib because it will be steadier, and I think it may be done in the way you propose by making the outer tube screw into the brass arm instead of being soldered into it. the...
54From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 6 February 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose, for the use of my grandson a draught of the bank of the US. here on that at Philadelphia for 56. D. having added to the usual sum 6. Dollars, which I pray him to call & pay to mr Dobson for me, for books lately recieved from him. I begin already to be much occupied in preparing for my departure to those scenes of rural retirement after which my soul is panting. I salute you...
55From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 June 1796 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved a proposition from Europe which may perhaps be turned to account for the enlargement of your Museum. The hereditary prince of Parma, a young man of letters, of 22. years of age, lately married to a daughter of the K. of Spain, is desirous of augmenting his cabinet of Natural history by an addition of all the American subjects of the 3 departments of nature and will give those...
56Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 8 May 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I am indebted to you for two letters yet unacknolegged unacknoledged , to wit of June 18. and Dec. 23. 15. I pay three or four visits a year to a very distant possession I have in Bedford , where, being comfortably fixed, I pass a month or two at a time, so that it is almost a second home. it is in the finest part of our state for soil & climate, and near to Lynchburg ; now the 2
57From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 9 March 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his salutations to mr Peale. he recieved last night his favor of the 5th. he will leave this place for Monticello a fortnight hence, and will be absent 5. or 6. weeks, which he mentions now because as the Polygraphs will arrive after his departure his acknolegement of their reception and his return of Brunelle’s cannot be till his return to this place in May. RC ( TxU )....
58From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 30 March 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Tomorrow I set out for Monticello, and very fortunately I recieved last night the two polygraphs. this morning I tried them. I was charmed with the ingenuity and beautiful workmanship of Brunel’s, and proportionably mortified on trial to find I could not produce a copy of a single letter distinct, altho’ I perfectly understood the action of all it’s parts, and saw that there was nothing...
59From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 November 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved from Capt. Pike two cubs of the Grisly bear taken on the Rio Bravo. they were taken when too young to eat without being fed, have been ever since with the men on their journey, generally at large in their camp & perfectly gentle. they are now in a cage, & appear quite good humored. they are male and female. They would certainly be more in the way of extending information if...
60Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 17 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I had long owed you a letter for your favor of Aug. 19. when I recieved, eight days ago that of Mar. 2. 18 12 . a slip of the pen, I suppose for 18 13 . and the pamphlet accompanying it strengthens the supposition. I thank you for the pamphlet. it is full of good sense & wholsome advice, and I am making all my grandchildren read it, married & unmarried: and the story of farmer Jenkins will I...