Smaller telescopes of the kind we have been referring to have become extremely popular: and deservedly so. They are likely to maintain their character in future years; for the Newtonian form of instrument, besides being thoroughly effective in critical work, is moderate in price and gives images absolutely achromatic. Moreover, it is used with a facility and ease which an experienced observer knows how to appreciate. Whatever may be the altitude of the objects under scrutiny, he is enabled to retain a perfectly convenient and natural posture, and may pursue his work during long intervals without any of the fatigue or discomfort incidental to the use of certain other forms of instrument.
Returning now to refractors: many years elapsed after Dollond patented his achromatic object-glass before it was found feasible to construct these instruments of a size sufficient to grasp faint and delicate objects. Opticians were thwarted in their efforts to obtain glass of the requisite purity for lenses, unless in small disks very few inches in diameter. It is related that Dollond met with a pot of uncommonly pure flint glass in 1760, but even with this advantage of material he admitted that, after numerous attempts, he could not provide really excellent object-glasses of more than 3-3/4-inches diameter. It may therefore be readily imagined that a refractor of 4½ or 5-inches aperture was an instrument of great rarity and expense. Towards the latter part of the 18th century Tulley’s price was £275 for a 5-inch equatoreally mounted.
10-inch Reflecting-Telescope on a German Equatoreal, by Calver.]
In later years marked improvements were effected in the manufacture of glass. A sign of this is apparent in the fact that, in 1829, Sir James South was enabled to purchase a 12-inch lens. Four years before this the Dorpat telescope, having an objective of 9½ inches, had created quite a sensation. As time went on, still larger glasses were made. In 1862 Alvan Clark & Sons, of New York, U.S.A., finished an instrument of 18½-inches aperture, at a cost of £3700; and in 1869 Cooke & Sons mounted a 24·6-inch object-glass for the late Mr. Newall, of Gateshead. The latter instrument was much larger than any other refractor hitherto made, but it was not long to maintain supremacy. One of 25·8 inches and 29-feet focus was finished in 1872 by Alvan Clark & Sons for the Naval Observatory, Washington, at a cost of £9000. Another, of similar size, was supplied by the same firm to Mr. McCormick, U.S.A. Several important discoveries, including the satellites of Mars, were effected with the great Washington telescope. A few years later a 27-inch was completed by Grubb for the Vienna Observatory, and quite recently the four largest refractors ever made have been placed in position and are actively employed in various departments of work. These include a 29-inch by Martin for the Paris Observatory, a 30-inch by Henry Bros. for Nice, a 30-inch by A. Clark & Sons for Pulkowa, and a 36-inch, also by A. Clark & Sons, for the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton in California. The latter has no rival in point of size, though rumours are current that still larger lenses are in contemplation. The tube of the 36-inch is 56 feet long and 3½ feet in diameter at the ends, but the diameter is greater in the middle. It is placed within a great dome 75 feet in diameter. The expense of the entire apparatus is given as follows:—Cost of the dome, $56,850; of the visual objective, $53,000; of the photographic objective, $13,000; of the mounting, $42,000. Total, $164,850. This noble instrument—due to the munificence of one individual, the late Mr. James Lick, of Chicago, who bequeathed $700,000 for the purpose—may be regarded as the king of refracting-telescopes. Placed on the summit of Mount Hamilton, where the atmosphere is exceptionally favourable for celestial observations, and utilized as its resources are by some of the best observers in America, we may confidently expect it to largely augment our knowledge of the heavenly bodies.