graphical Society and remained interested in it all 

 his life. But from 1845 on, cameras became secon- 

 dary; he built them between telescope orders. 



During the years that followed he constantly im- 

 proved the quality of his lenses and the accuracy and 

 speed with which he could "execute the true curves," 

 as he expressed it. He used better and better glass. 

 In his early experiments he had taken what came to 

 hand — ordinary tumbler bottoms, for instance. In 

 his 1845 prize winner he combined Boston-made flint 

 with French plate glass. But the Boston flint proved 

 too veiny for any but small lenses and he soon was 

 importing both crown and flint. He designed and 

 built inachines, run by foot power, on which he could 

 train employees to do much of the labor of lens mak- 

 ing, always reserving the final polishing for himself. 

 He increased the size as well as the quality of his 

 lenses. By 1856, he was making 12}^-inch refrac- 

 tors, which according to Prof. Loomis, were as large as 

 any that had then been made in Munich. He built 

 later, still larger ones, of which one was a 16-inch 

 instrument made for Mr. Van Duzee of Buffalo. It 

 was his ambition to make a 24-inch one, but this 

 project, for which he had made careful plans, he did 

 not live to complete. 



One of his early successes was a 3%-inch telescope 

 for the Government of Haiti. By a happy accident 

 the objective for this instruinent proved to be excep- 

 tionally fine and provided a standard which he tried 

 to meet in all his work. The telescopes of Euro- 

 pean opticians became another measuring stick. It 

 was a matter of both personal and patriotic pride to 

 him that he, an American locksmith untrained in 

 optics, had been able to invent his own process for 

 making so complex and difficult a thing as an achro- 

 matic lens, and that he was able to manufacture tele- 

 scopes to compete with those of European make. He 

 sometimes contracted to inake a telescope equal in 

 performance to an imported one of similar size, usu- 

 ally at a lower price. The 6%-inch telescope made 

 in 1849 for Lt. J. M. Gilliss to use on an astronomical 

 expedition to Chile passed such a test and greatly 

 enhanced Henry Fitz's reputation. Another that met 

 such a test was the 13-inch instrument made for 

 the Allegheny Association at Pittsburgh in 1861. 



His telescopes were procured by private observa- 

 tories not already mentioned, among them that of 

 Van Arsdale, in Newark, and of Campbell, in New 

 York. For Rutherfurd he made several, including a 

 9- and a 12-inch instrument. The latter is now at 



Columbia University. Among the telescopes made 

 for colleges were a 1 2-inch one for Vassar and another 

 for the University of Michigan. Besides these and 

 other important instruments he made many of smaller 

 size — 4, 5, 6, and 8 inches. 



Most of the time, he was handicapped by lack of 

 capital with which to develop his business. The sav- 

 ings from locksmithing days he had, on his father's 

 advice, invested in Baltimore real estate, but found it 

 difficult to raise cash on this property when he needed 

 it. With the many orders that came in, this situa- 

 tion gradually improved, though he always continued 

 to supervise all phases of the process and to work 12 

 to 16 hours a day himself. As soon as his eldest son, 

 Harry, was old enough, he taught him all he knew. 

 The boy proved an apt pupil and a great help. By 

 1863 Henry Fitz felt secure enough to give up renting, 

 and had a house built for his family and business in 

 1 1 th Street, not many blocks from his friend and 

 patron, Mr. Rutherfurd. Plans for the future looked 

 bright. However, the family had hardly moved into 

 the new home when disaster befell. A heavy chan- 

 delier fell on the master of the house, causing injuries 

 which in a few days proved fatal. Henry Fitz died 

 on October 31, 1863, at the height of his career, leav- 

 ing to carry on his work a widow and si.x children, 

 the oldest a girl of eighteen, the youngest an infant. 



His son Harry, not yet seventeen, was able satis- 

 factorily to fulfill the outstanding contracts. In this 

 he had the backing and advice of Mr. Rutherfurd. 

 In fact, Harry continued the business, though on a 

 smaller scale, for some twenty years. Eventually he 

 became a teacher of drawing, pursuing this occupation 

 for over forty years more. 



As soon as possible the widow, Julia Ann Wells Fitz, 

 sold the city house and bought a farm in Peconic, 

 Long Island, near her birthplace, where she managed 

 to raise her family. All the children showed marked 

 ability. Louise, the only daughter, married Silas 

 Overton of Peconic, and used her talents in home and 

 community. The second son, Benjamin, became a 

 noted painter before his early death in 1890. Robert's 

 reputation as a fine mechanic was county-wide. 

 Charles was a prominent business and civic leader in 

 SuflFolk County. George became a physician and in- 

 ventor and was for a time Professor at Harvard. All 

 married, and there are now living in the United 

 States about fifty descendants of Henry Fitz, telescope 

 maker. 



A number of his instruments, though made a cen- 

 tury ago, are still in use. 



170 



BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY -AND TECHNOLOGY 



