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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Victorian Telescope Makers is the story of a highly specialized and unusual nineteenth-century business enterprise. Makers of some of the largest and best known telescopes of the Victorian era, the Grubbs of Dublin were at the forefront of optical and mechanical engineering in a world where continual innovation and improvement were the keys to success.

(Extracted from the back cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Acknowledgments.

-Foreword.

-Introduction.

-1- Thomas Grubb.

-2- The Great Melbourne Telescope.

-3- The 1870s-David Gill.

-4- The Great Vienna Telecope.

-5- Grubb and the Lick Telescope.

-6- Never so Busy-the 1880s.

-7- Gill and the Astrographic Project.

-8- The McClean Telescope.

-9- End of the 19th Century.

-10- 1905-1925; The Last Years of the Firm.

-A- Publications by T. Grubb.

-B- Publications by H. Grubb.

-List of Grubb Telescopes, Etc.

-Bibliography.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

The Victorian era is known for many things, and the science that from it stemmed is perhaps one of the most important feats. In Victorian Telescope Makers, Ian S. Glass narrates us the history of the Thomas and Howard Grubb brothers, famous telescope makers of the last century.

Glass decided to write this book when he found in the files of the then Royal Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, a series of volumes containing the considerable correspondence of the firm Grubb. Like the author explains in the preface, the case of the Royal Observatory is not unique. Other observatories keep in their files many of these letters. This way, Glass decided to compile the greatest amount of them and write a curious biography where it is Thomas and Howard, through their corespondence with customers and friends, who tell their own history step by step.

Certainly, the author has ordered these letters chronologically, writing his own ideas with respect to their contents. Some have been ordered according to themes, and all of them transpire the scientific enthusiasm of the Grubb family. It is easy to discover in them details of new techniques in the area of telescope making.

Some of the most important works by the Grubb brothers, like the Great Telescope in Vienna or the McClean telescope, receive a special attention on the part of Glass. We will also learn how the conversations between the firm and the Lick heirs were being developed, even though in the end these were finally frustrated.

Mention must likewise be made of the facts that the prologue has been written by Patrick Moore and that at the end of the book we will find a complete list with the publications by Thomas and Howard, as well as the telescopes built, domes, etc.