31From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 23 January 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for mr Rembrandt Peale’s pamphlet on the Mammoth, and feeling a strong interest in his succesful exhibition of the Skeleton, shall be very happy to hear he has the great run of visitants which I expect he will have. I was struck with the notice in the papers of mr Hawkins’s physiognotrace, of the work of which you send me some specimens, which I percieve must have been taken from...
32Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 18 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Jan. 15. is recieved, and I am indebted to you for others; but the torpitude of increasing years, added to a stiffening wrist making writing a slow & painful operation, makes me also a slow correspondent. I promised you a plough so long ago that I dare say you have forgot it: but I have this day sent it to Richmond to be forwarded to you. I claim nothing in it but the mould board...
33From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 November 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Passing as I do the active hours of my life in my study, I have found it essential to bring all the implements I use there within the narrowest compas possible; & in no case to lose a single inch of space which can be made to hold any thing. hence every thing is placed within my reach without getting out of my chair. on this principle I approve of the two drawers to the Polygraph proposed in...
34From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 October 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
The day before yesterday I sent to Alexandria 1. a large box containing skins, skeletons & horns 1. small box containing the Polygraph 1. do. with minerals for the Phil. society to be presented in capt Lewis’s name. a cage with a living magpie. These were delivered to Capt Elwood as you will see by the inclosed reciept & the freight paid. he promised he would sail yesterday & I hope you will...
35From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 9 April 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
My letter of the 5th. had been written but not sent off when I recieved yours of Mar. 30. with the new penbar. this finds me so near my departure for Washington that all is now hurry. I have not time therefore to change the penbars for trying the Diagonal writing; & I should not be without fear of deranging the machine, & losing the use of it while I yet stay & while I have much to write. I...
36From 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...
37From 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...
38From 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...
39From 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...
40From 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...
41From 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...
42From 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...
43From 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...
44From 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...
45From 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...
46From 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...
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, 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...
55From 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...
56From 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...
57From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 26 February 1823 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of the 8 th has been recieved with the Polygraph wire you were so kind as to send me. your friendly attention to my little wants kindle the most lively sentiments of thankfulness in me. the breaking of an ink-glass, the derangement of a wire, which cannot be supplied in a country situation like ours, would render an instrument of cost and of incalculable value entirely useless; as...
58From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 January 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Dec. 23. was duly recieved, and I am in hopes the Polygraph got safe to hand, & that you found it in good condition except so much as concerned the writing of the upper part of the page. I believe I mentioned to you in a former letter that if the one of yours with which I am now writing was not for your own use, I should be contented to retain it instead of mine, paying whatever...
59From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 October 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night yours of the 2d. on my arrival here on the 3d. I found the Stylograph with which I now write. you have rightly conjectured it’s principle. the impression both on the missive & copy retained is from a paper blacked on both sides, perhaps with coal, as they call it Carbonated paper. the method is so new to me that I am as yet awkward with it. it is not pleasant in it’s use,...
60From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 February 1824 (Jefferson Papers)
Altho’ writing is a difficulty with me, yet once in awhile I must ask my old friends How they do? your welcome letter of Jan. 25. now furnishes an occasion. the most acceptable part of it is that which assures me of your continuance in health, and in the enjoyment of your faculties, insomuch that you can still exercise your art with satisfaction. as long as the eyes retain their acumen, and...