and 1836 he presented instruments of this type to 

 the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, where com- 

 mittees compared them with the best available 

 European refractors and found them more than 

 adequate. One of Holcomb's instruments of 1835, 

 apparently his only surviving reflector, is now in the 

 Smithsonian Institution (see appendix, p. 184). 



Toward 1845, Holcomb tells us, "one after another 

 went into the business," and indeed they did. At 

 the American Institute Fair in New York that year 

 a gold medal was given Henry Fitz "for the best 

 achromatic telescope." In Cambridge, Massachu- 

 setts, Alvan Clark is supposed to have already taken 

 up the hobby of lens and mirror making. And in 

 McKeesport, Pennsylvania, an amateur telescope- 

 maker now known only as "Squire Wampler" made 

 a small achromatic refractor which he demonstrated 

 in 1849 to a 9-year-old boy named John Brashear, 

 of whom more later. 



Some of Holcomb's telescopes must have come to 

 the attention of Henry Fitz during his wide travels 

 as a locksmith after 1830, if, as is reported, he was 

 at that time pursuing his avocational interest in 

 astronomy. It is interesting to note that both 

 Holcomb and Fitz .seem to have pursued feverishly 

 the new photographic process of Daguerre in 1839, 

 the former near the end of his career as a telescope- 

 maker, the latter near the beginning of his. 



The decade before 1845, when "one after another 

 went into the business," seems to have been marked 

 by the flowering of observational astronomy in the 

 United States. The professional work of the Navy's 

 Depot of Charts and Instruments (forerunner of 

 the Naval Observatory) began about 1838. In 

 1844 the first instrument larger than 6 inches came 

 to this country, an 11 -inch refractor for the Cin- 

 cinnati Observatory. The Bonds established what 

 was to be the Harvard Observatory in 1839, and by 

 1847 Harvard had obtained its famous 15-inch 

 refractor from Merz and Mahler.* Fitz was to 

 have a more sophisticated market than had Holcomb. 



Despite the glowing recommendations of the 

 Franklin Institute committee,' no actual use of 

 Holcomb's instruments by astronomers has come to 



6 H. C. King, The History of the Telescope, London, Charles 

 Griffin, 1955, pp. 246-248. Milham op. cit. (footnote 3), p. 10. 



' As reported in the Journal of the Franklin Institute for July 

 1834, new ser. vol 14 (whole no. 18), pp. 169-172; July 1835, 

 new ser. vol. 16 (whole no. 20), pp. 11-13; and August 1836, 

 new ser. vol. 18 (whole no. 22), p. 110. The first two of these 

 are given in trie appendix, pp. 181-184. 



light. We may owe to the rapid progress of American 

 astronomy after 1840 the fact that we have evidence 

 of a more distinguished history for some of Fitz's 

 instruments. It will also be recalled that Holcomb 

 specialized in Herschelian reflectors. Fitz, on the 

 other hand, made few reflectors. He specialized in 

 achromatic telescopes mounted equatorially, the type 

 of instrument which was in greatest demand among 

 professional astronomers at the time. 



Some of Fitz's instruments had individual histories 

 and were associated with important events in astron- 

 omy. One was taken in 1849 on the Chilean as- 

 tronomical expedition of Lieut. James M. Gilliss. 

 Another was used by L. M. Rutherfurd in his epochal 

 astronomical photography at Columbia University. 

 One, made for the Allegheny Observatory, is still in 

 use at that institution. It appears from his account 

 book that Fitz made many telescopes, and some have 

 turned up in strange places. The lens of one of his 

 refractors was located a few years ago in South Caro- 

 lina, in use as substitute for the lens in an automobile 

 headlamp!' At an eastern university in 1958 the 

 writer saw another of his refractors incorporated into 

 apparatus used in graduate student experimentation. 



Among the others who began telescope-making 

 about 1845 was the portrait painter who was to be- 

 come one of the world's foremost telescope-makers, 

 Alvan Clark. Clark is supposed to have become 

 first interested in lens and mirror making about 1844, 

 and, as a resident of Cambridge, Mass., to have been 

 inspired three years later by the great 15-inch refrac- 

 tor installed at Harvard. His first encouragement 

 came from the British astronomer W. R. Dawes, with 

 whoiTi he had a correspondence on their respective 

 observations and to whom he sold a VJi inch refrac- 

 tor in 1851. The following year he established, with 

 his sons, the firm of Alvan Clark and Sons, a name 

 which was later to become one of the most famous 

 in the field of telescope making. Whereas Holcomb 

 had demonstrated that telescopes could be made in 

 this country, and Fitz that American instruments 

 were adequate to the needs of the professional astron- 

 omer, Clark was to prove that American instruments 

 could compete commercially with the finest made in 

 Europe. In 1862 Alvan Clark and Sons completed 

 an 18 Jo-inch refractor which was long to serve the 



* Reported by "R. K. M." in Shy and Telescope, March 1942, 

 vol. 1, p. 21. The "Catalog of Objectives Made by Henry 

 Fitz," the time span of which is unspecified, lists 428 objectives 

 up to 13 inches and only 6 mirrors. It is not clear, however, 

 that these represent finished units. 



158 



BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



