He became known to Sir John Herschel, and through him he communicated to the Royal Society papers On a New Photometer, On a New Form of the Differential Thermometer, and On the Permeability of Transparent Screens of Extreme Tenuity by Radiant Heat. Shortly afterwards he published two small treatises on geometry (1833; 3rd edit. 1853) and the differential and integral calculus (1836; 2nd edit. 1847). He communicated to the Royal Society—of which he was elected a fellow—papers On the Elasticity of Threads of Glass and the Application of this Property to Torsion Balances, and also experimental researches on the electric and chemical theories of galvanism, on electromagnetism, and voltaic electricity.