The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-06-05

said that with a rifle be could put bullet
after bullet though q distant board with
such precision that one would say only a
single shot had been fired, and this is par
TALLY explained bv the fact that he made
his own rifles With bis own hands. and used
that same marvellous exactitude in the bor-
ing of the barrel. the setting Of the sights
and the cutting of tho bullets that after
ward gave him his worldwide fame as a
lens maker.
It was not until 1843, when Alvan Clark
was moro than forty years old, that his at
tention was turned toward telescope max
ing. In that year the accidental breaking
of a dinner bell at the Phillips Academy,
important advance that the science of prac-
teal astronomy has over made. George
Bassett Clark, son OF Alvan and brother Of
tho present Alvan G., was a pupil at the
academy. Gathering up the castaway frag-
ments of the bell he took them home, nut
them into a orucible with some tin, and pro-
ceeded to melt them in the kitchen fl O., in
forming his mother that he was going to
make q telescope. The mother smiled in
diligently upon this potterinR interference
with her more important culinary arrange
ments, but the father, when he heard of it,
took a moro serious view of the matter.
Ne became 80 deeply interested in tho
work that he laid aside his Paints and
brushes and gave his time and gen.
ius to tho shaping and polishing Of his sons
IelleCtOT. LILO FohulS WAb u .uVe-luCu re-
flectlng telescope which showed tho satel-
lites of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn and
other telescope objects. That was the be-
ginning from which have grown, in gradual
succession. the famous refracting Telescopes
of the Vienna university az inch aperture),
the Morrison observatory (l21a inchl. the
Wisconsin university (l514 inch), the War
rem observatory ZIG inch) the Northwestern
university (18I inch). the Denver univers-
ity GEO inch). the Princeton university (23
inch). the University OF Virginia (26 inch),
the United States Naval observatory at
Washington (2G inoh), the Pulkowa OBJ.
%servatory of Russia GO inch), and the great
Lick observatory of California (36 inch),
the largest lens in the world, though n still
larger one 10 in process of construction. as
l shall show later on.
Alvan Clark never again took up his paint
brushes until forty years later. when, at the
age of So. he made an exquisitely beautiful
and wondrously lifelike portrait of his
grandson, who had recently died. This
young man, the only son of Alvan G.. was
the hope of the family. il not, indeed, the
hope of astronomical ~scisnce. for it was to
MIN that the great work was to fall when
his grandfather and his father should have
passed away, and he WAS being carefully
trained. as his father before him had been
from early boyhood, to the methods which
ma made this house p~rs-eminent among
the worlds great lens makers. 1t 10 a mat
ter of serious import that the only man now
living who can make these great lenses is
we'll along In his sixtieth year.
The street car conductor told me | should
know Mr.. Clark's place when | camo to it.
for it was 20 big yard full of smokestscks.''
The "smokestacks," l found, were tele-
score tubes, for whenever Mr.. Clark makes
a glass of new size he erects a rough tube in
which to test it on the stars. and these
tubes all remain. monumental reminders
Of his successive %triumphs, for in 1862 he
broke the record Of large lenses, and ever
since has been breaking over and over his
own otherwise unapproaohable record.
Little attention is paid to tho general APP
learance Of this big yard. In front stand
two neat frame houses. one tbs old home
stend whore Alvin Clark lived for more than
half n century, the other tho more modern
home of Alvin g. Down at the rear of the
gently slopinR grounds stands . small, |
shAmblinR brick structure. picturesque
enough, but hardly suggestive OF the unique
enterprise IL shelters. In this low building,
buried to It's window stills, Mr.. Clark, with
only two assistants. shapes and Rrinds and
polishes the lenses which make tho heavens
yield TO us their thrilling mysteries.
cannot hope to give in n few words any
thing like an adequate idea of tho skill and
patience employed in the manufacture Of
these ursnt detectives. The story merely of
how tho glass, the raw material, 10 made
would wa rant the use of more than ! have
Mt my disposal. But u suggestion Of tho
niosty OF this latter process may b. found