Nice
June 23. 1823
My Dear Mr Feilding
I shall direct this letter to Milan, where I suppose you will arrive before me, tho’ I expect to be there about the 5th July. You will be sorry to hear that poor Andriani died about two months ago. – I wish I had recommended you to engage the guide Salvatore for your expedition to Vesuvius, as he is an excellent & honest fellow, & would have taken the whole job into his own hands – I did not do so, because he expects to receive at least 24 carlini. <1> I lost my Theodolite <2> stand at Resina, & he took the trouble to find me out in Naples, tho’ he did not know my name; & brought it me safe. Poor Virey <3> has met with fresh misfortunes, two of his children died of the scarlet fever within a few days of each other: people say it was in consequence of the injudicious use of the cold bath, advised by the English physician, not Bunnett who is not here. I have heard from Nicholl <4> dated Ulm; his letter was a long time coming; Jane <5> was quite well & their journey very prosperous –
I met with an account in a periodical, of Perkins’s new steam engine, <6> which makes me curious to see it. The principle seems quite new, & the effect is said to be prodigious, & besides it cannot burst from its nature. Not to mention that the fuel consumed is less, tho’ the force is so much greater, which is invaluable in the case
Monsr
Monsieur Feilding
Gentilhomme Anglois
Poste Restante
Milan
[verso]
Count Strassoldo
Palazzo di Governo
[apparently unrelated mathematical calculation]
Notes:
1. Italian coin.
2. Basic surveying instrument of unknown origin, going back to the 16th c. English mathematician Leonard Digges, used to measure horizontal and vertical angles.
3. See Doc. No: 00998.
4. Dr John Nicholl (1797–1853), MP.
5. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
6. Jacob Perkins (1766–1849), American inventor who experimented with high-pressure steam boilers and in 1823 devised a means to attain working steam pressure of 800–1400 psi.