Castlefield Observatory
Fairbanks P.O.
Toronto 10
Sept 15/44

Secretary R.A.S.C.

Dear Mr. Waring

I have just received your letter. I am very pleased to know, you all express concern over my accident, it is a bad one this time. I have just completed 16 weeks of Hospital attention, and I am back Home, but my hands are not normal, left hand is deformed a lot & almost without skin, but right is usable though fingers do not open full, in a few months I will have to go in again to have a skin graft over hand & fingers of one hand followed in a month by grafted skin on other hand, the burnt tendons of two fingers of left hand make 3rd & 4th fingers useless and will be a set back to me on figuring a 10" mirror which is at the approximate sphere, also I have not power in hands to open my Observatory Dome so will not be able to do telescopic observing until after the final grafting of hands, but, I will do all I can on auroral work, and will send any observations I make, weekly, to Mr Carl Gartlein as I used to do prior to 1940.

This accident cooked both hands for eleven minutes while I hung on to two 550V overhead cables when ladder moved. I believe they brought me round in 1 hr 15 min, but I sure do not want that ozygen [sic] inhalator again it made me very sick, but got life back anyway. I did not want anyone around to know till I was all OK again.

Yours Truly Bert Topham.

Rec'd Oct 6