[1] Instruments surviving from 18th-century America are almost exclusively of European origin, products of the numerous and famous shops which sprang up, particularly in England and France, to meet the demand occasioned by the popularity of the telescope among amateurs and dilettanti.
[2] U.S. National Museum catalog nos. 152078 and 152079.
[3] W. I. Milham, Early American Observatories, Williamstown, Mass., Williams College, 1938.
[4]Mechanics Magazine, 1830, vol. 13, pp. 114-115 and frontispiece.
[5] See p. 184 for a list of Holcomb’s instruments in the U.S. National Museum.
[6] H. C. King, The History of the Telescope, London, Charles Griffin, 1955, pp. 246-248. Milham op. cit. (footnote 3), p. 10.
[7] 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 the appendix, pp. 181-184.
[8] Reported by “R. K. M.” in Sky 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.
[9] Langley’s work at the Allegheny Observatory, particularly his invention of the bolometer, brought him international reknown as a scientist. In January 1887 he was appointed assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and later in that year became its third Secretary, serving from 1887-1906.
[10] The giant mirrors of Herschel (1789) and Rosse (1842) were made of an alloy of 71% copper and 29% tin, and 68½% copper and 31½% tin, respectively. This alloy was known as “speculum metal.” The silvered glass mirror was pioneered by Steinhill and Foucault in 1856. In England Dr. A. A. Common made considerable use in the 1870’s of silvered glass mirrors made by George Calver. About 1892-97 Common himself made, but never finished, a 60-inch mirror. It was later refigured and is still in use.
[12] Words crossed out in manuscript. See figure 1.
[13] For a list of Fitz material in the U.S. National Museum, see appendix, p. 184.
[14] F. W. Preston, “The first big American telescope mirror, John Peate, his lens,” Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society, 1936, vol. 15, pp. 129-152. Hereafter cited as Preston.
[15] The circumstances of Peate’s life and ministerial career are from Preston, supplemented by Dr. Peate’s service record, provided by the Erie Conference of the Methodist Church. Dr. Preston’s prime sources are: J. N. Fradenburgh, History of the Erie Conference, Oil City, Pa., 1907, vol. 2, pp. 204-211; obituary notice by R. N. Stubbs in Minutes of the Erie Conference, pl. publ. 1903, p. 90. Other data were obtained by Preston through interviews and letters, all cited in detail in the article.
[16] From information provided by Robert Barr, acting secretary of Oberlin College, February 15, 1960. The college records show a John Peate from Buffalo enrolled in the preparatory department in 1842-43 and 1844-45. The Encyclopedia Americana (1924 ed., vol. 21, p. 460) states that Peate attended Oberlin about this time. The Doctorate was an honorary one conferred by Allegheny College.
[18] Preston, p. 130, n. 10; p. 131, n. 19; p. 148.
[19] “On the Construction of a Silvered Glass Telescope, Fifteen and a Half Inches in Aperture, and its Use in Celestial Photography,” Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. 14, art. 3, iv+55 pp., 1865 (reprinted in vol. 34 as art. 2, 1904).
[20] Preston, p. 148. From an article in the Greenville, Pa., Record Argus, December 17, 1903.
[21] Preston, p. 148. In 1960 it was further learned that an “American Temperance” college or university once existed at Harriman.
[22]Scientific American, October 24, 1891, vol. 65, p. 260.
[23] Communication from Thiel College, Preston, p. 131, n. 17.
[25] Preston, p. 129, notes 2 & 3. Based on recollections of George Lambert (1895) and John Morrison (1903). That the decision to make the mirror 62 inches in diameter may have had another origin is suggested by the fact that Common, in England, had made two mirrors of 60 and 61 inches in 1886-91.
[26] Minutes of the Erie Conference, 1893, p. 29. Preston, p. 130, n. 4.
[27] Preston has reconstructed the story of the making of the 62-inch mirror from contemporary journals, which will be cited below, and from personal communications with some of the participants, notably George Howard and George Lambert. Detailed citation of these communications are given in Preston. He has also used a brief manuscript account by Peate himself (Preston, p. 142, n. 62).
[28] Communication with Frank A’Hearn and John Hodge. Preston, p. 135.
[29] Peate’s workshop and apparatus is described in detail by Preston, pp. 135-138.
[37] The Brashear Instrument Company, after the death of its founder John Brashear, became the J. W. Fecker Company, Inc. This concern is now a division of the American Optical Company.
