31From 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...
32From 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...
33From 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...
34From 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...
35From 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...
36From 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...
37From 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...
38From 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....
39From 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...
40From 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...
41From 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...
42From 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...
43From 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 )....
44From 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...
45From 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...
46From 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...
47From 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,...
48From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 May 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your favor of the 19th. and am sorry you have paid so much respect to my dimensions as to puzzle yourself with them, and still more to alter the writing machinery. they were meant to be entirely subject to your correction, & they are still so. I made the drawing from memory, & have seen since I returned here and have had a polygraph under my eye that I had not left room...
49From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 November 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
The two polygraphs you sent by the stage arrived in perfect order. the improvement in the writing apparatus is indeed precious. I find the pen now as light as a free pen. I immediately delivered to mr Madison the largest, with which he is well pleased, and I retain the smaller and more portable one. it pleases me extremely, and I do not know that I could desire an addition to it, but your...
50From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 3 November 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Immediately on the reciept of your favor of Oct. 28. I wrote to a friend of mine, mr Michael Bowyer who owns & resides at the Sweet springs , on the subject of the bones you mention as lately found in a cave of Greenbriar county, and which are probably of the Megalonyx. I observed to him that I had learned that the finder was preparing to send them to you; that if that was done, it was all...
51From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 17 December 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
I have only a moment to inform you that I send by Majr. Wingate for the Philosophical society a Prickly lizard living, which I recieved from Louisiana, and a box containing the bones and mineral substances described in the inclosed letter from Dr. James Brown of Kentucky. Accept my friendly salutations. PPAmP .
52From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 May 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I am this moment setting out on a short visit to Monticello, but a thought coming into my head which may be useful to your son who is carrying the Mammoth to Europe , I take time to hint it to you. my knolege of the scene he will be on enables me to suggest what might not occur to him a stranger. when in a great city, he will find persons of every degree of wealth. to jumble these all into a...
53From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 24 January 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations to mr Peale, & acknoleging the reciept of his favor of the 21st. on the subject of mr De Peyster, informs him that on the 23d. of December mr John Lyle had been nominated to the Senate, approved & commissioned as Consul for the island of Curaçoa. PPAmP : Sol Feinstone Collection.
54From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 27 June 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 22d. is recieved, & at the same time mr Hawkins’s small Polygraph, with which indeed I am charmed on account of it’s small size. the drawing the paper up to the pen is a beautiful contrivance, & I do not see why it might not be used in all the Polygraphs to reduce their size. I shall have the improvement of screw-pencases &c. put to this of mr Hawkins; but I find your idea...
55From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 12 October 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
My grandson Th Jefferson Randolph is now here, and will leave this place so as to be in Philadelphia on Tuesday the 18th. he will immediately repair to the quarters you are so kind as to offer him. I have arranged with his father to supply all his expences, except for clothes & pocket money. these were excepted merely because, altho’ I have entire confidence in his prudence and governableness,...
56From Thomas Jefferson to Jonathan Williams, 12 January 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
I am again to return the tribute of my thanks for the continued proofs of favor from the American Philosophical society; and I ever do it with sincere gratitude, sensible it is the effect of their good will, and not of any services I have it in my power to render them. I pray you to convey to them these expressions of my dutiful acknolegements; and to accept yourselves thanks for the favorable...
57From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 27 February 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Mr. Latrobe promised a few days ago to write to you to have me furnished with a polygraph of two pens, and that his experience would enable him to give some directions about it which would be useful. he was to desire particularly that there should be a drawer in each end, without any partitions in the drawers, because I would have them made here to suit my own convenience. I should also prefer...
58From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 19 June 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favors of the 13. & 15th. are recieved. if I rightly understand them, you have in hand one Polygraph 17⅝ I. by 11⅝ I. and another of 16. by 11. both of which will write to the bottom of a 4to. sheet. the larger one is that which will suit best as a present for my friend, and therefore I will ask you to send on that. The smaller one of 16. by 11. I observe is only 1⅜ longer than my 8vo....
59From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 6 October 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Sep. 14. was recieved in due time, and my small Polygraph continuing impracticable for the first half dozen lines, though perfect as to the rest, I have brought it on here to be forwarded to you for correction. it’s size is perfect, & the best possible, not having a hair’s breadth too much or too little. I should prefer however the double spring for holding the paper in place, as...
60From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 6 February 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you Capt. Pike’s account of the two bears. I put them together while here in a place 10. f. square. for the first day they worried one another very much with play: but after that they played at times, but were extremely happy together. when separated & put into their small cage again, one became almost furious. indeed one is much crosser than the other. but I do not think they have...