Clark, Alvan (1804–1887)
Renowned American maker of some of the world's largest and best lenses for
refracting telescopes. Together with his
sons, George Bassett Clark (1827–1891) and Alvan Graham Clark (1832–1897),
he founded Alvan Clark & Sons at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, in 1846,
and proceeded five times to make the objectives
for the largest refracting telescopes in the world. These included the 26-inch
lens at the US Naval Observatory
(the first achromatic lens produced in
the United States), the 30-inch lens at Pulkova Observatory, the 36-inch
lens at Lick Observatory, and the 40-inch lens
at Yerkes Observatory, the largest ever built.
The optical work of Clark & Sons was recognized as unsurpassed anywhere
and represented the first significant American contribution to astronomical
instrument-making; prior to this, American telescopes had never compared
with those of European manufacture. Alvan Graham Clark is also remembered
particularly for his discovery of the (white dwarf) companion of Sirius
in 1862.
Related category
• ASTRONOMERS
AND ASTROPHYSICISTS
Also on this site:
Encyclopedia
of Alternative Energy & Sustainable Living
Encyclopedia
of History
BACK TO TOP
|
