Mirror Polishing Tool
date: label: date made
content: 1930s
notes: label: Description
content: This wooden tool is part of the equipment used for polishing the 42-inch mirror for the Ritchey-Chrétien telescope that that George Willis Ritchey (1864-1945) made for the U.S. Naval Observatory in the 1930s. This innovative telescope was erected in Washington, D.C., and later moved to northern Arizona.
label: Description
content: Ref: George W. Ritchey, “On the Modern Reflecting Telescope and the Making and Testing of Optical Mirrors,” <i>Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge</i> 34 (1904).
label: Description
content: Deborah J. Mills, “George Willis Ritchey and the Development of Celestial Photography,” <i>American Scientist</i> 54 (1966): 64-93.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.316640
label: catalog number
content: 316640
label: accession number
content: 226338
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mirror Polishing Tool
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in x 20 1/4 in; 7.62 cm x 51.435 cm