and with their successors, the Alvan Clark & Sons Corporation — until his 

 death 41 years later. The Clarks quickly recognized his talents, taught 

 him their methods, and increasingly relied on him to finish their con- 

 tracts. It is, again, difficult to know the extent of Lundin's work, especially 

 as he seems to have been of an "exceedingly retiring and modest dispo- 

 sition." 109 After Alvan Graham's death in 1897 Lundin took over com- 

 plete responsibility for the instrument construction, and advertisements 

 for the corporation singled out Lundin as the optical expert. In 1905, 

 upon completion of an 18-inch objective for Amherst College, Lundin 

 received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Amherst, as had Alvan 

 Clark half a century earlier Other honors included a medal from the 

 1876 Centennial Exhibition, a diploma from the 1893 Columbian Ex- 

 position, fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, charter membership in the American Astronomical Society, 

 and membership in the Swedish Society at Harvard. 



The number of other workers in the Clark factory varied with the jobs 

 at hand. In the fall of 1873 Simon Newcomb asked the Clarks not to 

 diminish their work force after finishing the great Washington equatorial, 

 as they would be needed to complete the Transit of Venus apparatus on 

 time. 110 Soon thereafter the Clarks were employing a half-dozen hands 

 and, even in the busiest times, were said not to have more than ten workers 

 besides themselves. 111 Around 1881 the Clarks complained that "all the 

 instrument makers are very busy and it is impossible to get all the 

 workmen we want." 112 A few years later a visitor to their factory men- 

 tioned seeing four or five French opticians. 113 



Alvan Clark, Sr., was active in the business until just a few years 

 before his death in 1887, at the age of eighty-three. Exactly how much 

 work he had been doing in the later years is unclear. One account tells 

 that his sons, after figuring and polishing a lens as best they could, 

 brought it to him for the final examination and correction. 114 In 1884 



109 W. L. Watts to David Todd, 2 June 1905 (letter in Todd papers, Yale Univer- 

 sity Archives). 



110 Simon Newcomb to Alvan Clark & Sons, 15 October 1873 (letter in U.S. 

 Naval Observatory Papers, U.S. Archives). 



111 An occasional correspondent of the Tribune, "Two Giant Telescopes." op. cit. 



112 Alvan Clark & Sons to Edward S. Holden, 1 September 1881 (?) (letter in 

 Lick Observatory Archives). 



113 John F. Sullivan, "A Visit to Alvan Clark, Jr.," op. cit., p. 389. 



114 English Mechanic, vol. 46 (1887-1888), p. 83. 



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