attributed to irregular refraction within the temporary tube, for several 

 years the Bonds were reluctant to recommend Clark's work. 30 



The first recorded sale of a Clark telescope — a 5-inch aperture achro- 

 matic refractor — was to William Harvey Wells. As he had taught Eng- 

 lish and science at Phillips Academy between 1836 and 1847, Wells was 

 very probably the man most responsible for the first dinner bell-reflector 

 experiments. On 4 October 1848 the new refracting telescope was set 

 up at the Putnam Free School in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where 

 Wells was then principal. Simon Newcomb's cynical remark to the con- 

 trary, laudatory descriptions of this instrument were widely publicized. 

 The Boston Courier of 13 November 1848 carried a lengthy article by 

 Alvan Clark reporting the trials at Newburyport: Wells, although un- 

 familiar with the positions of stars, could distinguish the close pair in the 

 triple star y Andromeda, and locate the fifth, and at intervals the 

 sixth, stars in the Orion trapezium. 37 In an uncommon burst of self- 

 advertisement, Clark extensively circulated copies of this notice. 38 Two 

 years later, in his popular Recent Progress of Astronomy, Elias Loomis 

 repeated these assertions; and he quoted Charles A. Young to the effect 

 that a similar Clark objective was "one of great excellence, indicating a 

 high degree of finish in respect to the correction of both the chromatic 

 and spherical aberrations." 39 Owing to this publicity Clark apparently 

 sold some other telescopes at this time, but the purchasers are unknown. 40 



Figuring an achromatic lens was difficult enough, but, for the Clarks, 

 obtaining flint and crown glass discs of suitable purity was even harder. 

 The few firms which made good optical glass were in Germany and 

 France, and they kept their techniques secret. Alvan Clark figured some 

 discs of American glass but was soon ready to renounce his efforts until 

 he could find better material. 41 This lack of a local optical glass factory 

 must always have been a nuisance; in 1879, ano ^ perhaps at other times 



36 H. S. Leavitt, "Claries' Observatory," in E. M. H. Merrill (ed.), Cambridge 

 Sketches (Boston, 1896), p. 150. See also Simon Newcomb, "The Story of a Tele- 

 scope," op. cit., p. 44. 



37 Alvan Clark, "Telescopes," The Boston Courier, 13 November 1848. 



38 Alvan Clark to William C. Bond, 30 March 1849 (letter in Bond Papers, 

 Harvard University Archives). 



39 Elias Loomis, Recent Progress of Astronomy (New York, 1850), pp. 252-253. 



*° Alvan Clark autobiography, op. cit., p. 113. See also Simon Newcomb, "The 

 Story of a Telescope," op. cit., p. 45. 

 41 Elias Loomis, Recent Progress of Astronomy, p. 252. 



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