Sources on Hamilton's Discovery of Quaternions

Question

This is a strange question and I'm not sure where to put it; I'm currently writing an essay for a history of maths course, and I've chosen the topic of Hamilton's discovery of the quaternions. I assume that after he discovered them, he would have published a paper explaining his thought processes etc., but every paper I can find is on the applications of quaternions rather than their discovery.

I know he experimented with triplets before he realized that he needed a fourth dimension, and I'm looking for his papers that document this.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

See Hamilton's Research on Quaternions.

Answer 2

You might want to examine the possibility that this was discovered earlier by the Spanish mathematician and banker Olinde Rodrigues in 1840.