Thomas Jefferson Papers

To Thomas Jefferson from Joseph Donath, 20 June 1804

From Joseph Donath

Philadelphia 20 June 1804

Your Excellency

As I had no glass of the quality and size wanted, nor could procure any in this city, which I could warrant but expecting dayly a parcel, tho’ not of my own importation, I deferred answering Your Excellency’s kind letter of the 11 Inst. Having now received the same, I have the mortification to observe that I find but one box 12 by 15 containing 90 panes, that may answer on a pinch, but as it is not of the thickness requisite for Skylights, to bear the brunt of hail, I do not think myself authorized to forward it without further orders.

I am most respectfully Your Excellency’s most Hble servt

Jos. Donath

RC (MHi); endorsed by TJ as received 23 June and so recorded in SJL.

thickness requisite for skylights: in 1796, TJ advised Donath that glass purchased for Monticello needed to be 1½ inches thick to withstand high winds. Even that precaution did not prevent two skylights from being destroyed in an 1801 hailstorm (Vol. 29:212-3; Vol. 34:390).

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