telescopes, of the Herschelian kind. About the year 

 1833, he began to have orders for telescopes. Among 

 these orders was one from William J. Young, a 

 celebrated Philosophical instrument maker of Phila- 

 delphia, who wanted two small diagonal metalic 

 reflectors for two Transit instruments that he was 

 making. Mr Holcomb made the articles wanted, 

 and thought he would take them and a telescope 

 and visit Philadelphia. Mr Young introduced him 

 to the late Sears C. Walker, and Mr Walker intro- 

 duced him to Mr Hamilton, Actuary of the Franklin 

 Institute of the State of Pennsylvania, and the Actuary 

 appointed a committee to examine the telescope. 

 He selected the committee from the standing com- 

 mittee on Science and the Arts of the Institute. 

 Mr Patterson of the Mint, Alexander D. Bach super- 

 intendent of the Coast survey, Dr Robert Hare the 

 chemist, James P. Espey, Sears G Walker, Isiah T. 

 Lukens and some others. These were among the 

 first scientific men of America. The committee 

 examined the telescope, and compared it with others 

 of european manufacture. The Report of that 

 committee may be found in the Journal of the Frank- 



FiGURE 3. — Eyepiece and tripod head of the Holcomb 

 reflecting telescope shown in figure 2. {Smithsonian 

 photo 1 1000) 



Figure 4. — Transit telescope (USNM 310599) made 

 by Amasa Holcomb. The aperture is i )i inches, 

 length 21 inches, and axis 14 inches. It lacks the 

 original support. (Smithsonian photo ^•^^ys-c) 



lin Institute Vol. 14-p-169. The next year 1835 

 he took a larger telescope to Philadelphia, and offered 

 it to the same committee for examination and com- 

 parison with european telescopes. That Report 

 may be found in the Journal of the Franklin Institute 

 Vol 16 p. 11. The next year 1836 he presented a 

 Telescope 14 feet long to the same committee Their 

 report may be found in the Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute Vol. 18-p 312. These Reports furnish 

 the best information in regard to the performance 

 of these telescopes. The committee gave them a 

 high character, and they were sold in almost every 

 state in the Union. One went to Seramp in the 

 East indies, and one to one of the Sandwich islands 

 in the Pacific ocean. While he was pursuing his 

 labors as Engineer, and manufacturing Telescopes, 

 and other instruments, in 1839 the news reached 

 this country from Paris, of Daguerres great discovery 

 of taking pictures on siher plates by solar light. 



PAPER 26: THREE 19TH-CENTURY AMERICAN TELESCOPE MAKERS 



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