Alvan Clark
Alvan Clark | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 8, 1804 |
| Died | August 19, 1887 (aged 83) |
| Nationality | American |
| Awards | Lalande Prize (1862) Rumford Prize (1866) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
Alvan Clark (March 8, 1804 – August 19, 1887), born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, was an American astronomer and telescope maker.
Biography
He started as a portrait painter and engraver (c.1830s–1850s), and at the age of 40 became involved in telescope making. Using glass blanks made by
Ole Miss); also the two 26-inch (66 cm) telescopes at the United States Naval Observatory and McCormick Observatory, the 30-inch (76 cm) at Pulkovo Observatory, which was destroyed in the Siege of Leningrad (only the lens survives), the 36-inch (91 cm) telescope at Lick Observatory (still the third-largest), and later the 40-inch (100 cm) at Yerkes Observatory
, which remains the largest successful refracting telescope in the world.
Although not specifically searching for
8 Sextantis, and 95 Ceti.[2] One of Clark's sons, Alvan Graham Clark, discovered the dim companion of Sirius. Two craters bear Clark Sr.'s name. The crater Clark on the Moon is jointly named for him and his son, Alvan Graham Clark, and one on Mars is named in his honour.[3] His other son was George Bassett Clark
; both sons were partners in the firm.
Clark was also competitive in target shooting and received a patent for his device to allow bullets to be seated into a muzzle-loading rifle without damage to either the bullet or the rifle's muzzle. Exclusive license to this patent (1,565 of April 24, 1840) was made to Edwin Wesson, brother of Daniel B. Wesson.[4]
In 1880, Clark was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.[5]
See also
Image gallery
- Portraits by Clark
-
Portrait of an unidentified woman, c. 1835 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City) -
Portrait of John Pickering, c. 1840 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) -
Portrait of Samuel Hall Gregory, c. 1840s (Smithsonian, Washington D.C.) -
Portrait of Joseph Story, 1846 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
References
- ISBN 9781108601702.
- .
- .
- ^ Hamilton, John D. "Alvan Clark and the False Muzzle". American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin (79): 31–37.
- ^ "APS Members History". Archived from the original on May 14, 2021.
- "Alvan Clark, Astronomy, Biographies". AllRefer.com. Archived from the original on June 23, 2004.
- Deborah Jean Warner & Robert B. Ariail (1995). Alvan Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics. ISBN 0-943396-46-8.
Further reading
- "Recent Deaths. Alvan Clark." Boston Daily Evening Transcript, 19 August 1887.
- "Autobiography of Alvan Clark." New-England Historical and Genealogical Register 43 (January 1889): 52-58.
- Raymond S. Dugan (1930). "Clark, Alvan". Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Warner, Deborah Jean. Alvan Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics. Washington, 1968.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alvan Clark.
- National Gallery of Art has works by Clark
- . . 1914.
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