Grubb Parsons

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Sir Howard Grubb, Parsons and Co. Ltd.

Grubb Parsons (legally 'Sir Howard Grubb, Parsons and Co. Ltd.') was a historic manufacturer of telescopes, active in the 19th and 20th centuries. They built numerous large research telescopes, including several that were (at the time of construction) the largest in the world of their type.

It was founded in 1833 by

First World War (1914-18) the company produced periscopes for submarines and moved to St Albans
in 1918.

In 1925 the company was purchased by

UK Infrared Telescope (1979). Their final project was the William Herschel Telescope
in 1985, after which the company shut down.

Grubb Telescope Company

Base of the 12-inch refracting telescope at V. P. Engel'gardt Astronomical Observatory, built in 1875 by the Grubb Telescope Company.

The company was founded in

Cassegrain layout and was provided with an equatorial mount which could track targets automatically using a clock drive; both were innovative features that had not been used on large telescopes before and were widely adopted thereafter.[2][3]

Orders from outside Ireland soon followed, including the 6.7-inch (170 mm)

compound microscopes.[6]

With Thomas Grubb approaching retirement, in 1865 he was joined in managing the company by his son Howard Grubb.[7] Thomas Grubb retired in 1868 and died in 1878.[7] Howard Grubb solidified the company's reputation for high-quality optical instruments, and was knighted in 1887.

The Grubbs contributed to the early development of

spectroscope with six prisms.[8]

The 27-inch refractor at the Vienna Observatory, built by the Grubb Telescope Company in 1878.

In 1868 the company completed the 48-inch (1.2 m)

Calton Hill Observatory).[4] The company constructed a 27-inch (0.69 m) refractor for the Vienna Observatory in 1878, which was then the largest refractor in the world and regarded as being of high optical quality.[7]

The Melbourne and Vienna telescopes substantially enhanced the reputation of the company, leading to numerous orders for new telescopes. Some of the largest constructed in this period included a 24-inch (0.61 m) for the private observatory of

28-inch (0.71 m) refractor at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (1893, still the largest refractor in the UK).[4] In 1887 Grubb's firm built seven identical astrographs for the international Carte du Ciel project; the 13 inch refracting telescopes were designed to produce uniform photographic plates.[10] In 1896 they produced a 30-inch (0.76 m) reflector for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.[11] The company produced an 18/24-inch double refractor for the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope (South Africa, 1897)[12] and a copy for the Radcliffe Observatory (Oxford, 1901).[13]

After the submarine

National Astronomical Observatory of Chile (Santiago), which had been ordered in 1909, partially constructed in 1913, but was not operational until 1925.[4]

Grubb Parsons

The Grubb Parsons 36" telescope at the
Royal Observatory Edinburgh

In 1925, with Howard Grubb aged 81 and the company on the verge of

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where his other engineering companies were already located.[7]

The first large telescope completed under the new management (though not the first ordered

Royal Greenwich Observatory ordered a copy of this instrument, which was constructed as the Yapp telescope. In 1931 the company provided both a 40-inch (1.0 m) reflector and a 24/20-inch double refractor for the new site of the Stockholm Observatory (Sweden).[17]

Charles Parsons died in 1931,[citation needed] but Grubb Parsons remained a subsidiary of his engineering business, C. A. Parsons and Company.[1] In 1938, the company acquired the telescope manufacturing arm of Cooke, Troughton & Simms.[18][19]

The 74-inch for David Dunlap Observatory, under construction in Grubb Parsons' workshop in Newcastle

The company found the standardisation of designs to be profitable, so continued the approach with a series of six near-identical 74-inch (1.9 m) telescopes for the

Helwan Observatory (Egypt, 1963).[17] They continued to produce numerous smaller telescopes in this period, including a 36-inch (0.91 m) for Cambridge Observatory (UK, 1955), a 40-inch (1.0 m) for the South African Astronomical Observatory (1963), and a 48-inch (1.2 m) for Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (Victoria, Canada, 1961).[17]

The next major project was the 98-inch (2.49 m)

Royal Greenwich Observatory, which had moved to Herstmonceux Castle, completed in 1965. The location was later deemed unsuitable, so from 1979-84 this telescope was moved to Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands, during which Grubb Parsons upgraded it with a 100-inch (2.54 m) mirror.[17]

The company began to concentrate on optical systems, not mechanical designs, producing thousands of small mirrors, lenses and prisms for

Danish National Telescope (La Silla Observatory, Chile, 1976).[17]

The William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands, Spain.

The company traded until 1985,[why?] with its last project being the 4.2-metre (170 in) William Herschel Telescope.[2][20]

Historiography

The surviving archives of the company are held at the Tyne and Wear Archives, part of the Discovery Museum in Newcastle.[21]

historian of astronomy, wrote a history of the company under the management of Thomas and Howard Grubb, based mostly on their letters.[22] Glass also produced catalogues of the telescopes known to have been produced by Grubb[4] and by Grubb Parsons.[17]

A partial history of the company under Parsons was written by its last managing director, George Sisson.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1098/rspa.1955.0118
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e "Grubbs of Dublin / Grubb Parsons 1830-1985". Backyard Voyager. p. 1. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011.
  3. ^ "Thomas Romney Robinson and the New Instruments". Armagh Observatory. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Glass, Ian. "Telescopes and other instruments by Thomas and Howard Grubb". South African Astronomical Observatory. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  5. ^ a b Glass, Ian. "Victorian Telescope Makers: The Lives and Letters of Thomas and Howard Grubb". Ian Glass Astronomer Home Page. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  6. History of Science Museum
    . University of Oxford. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Grubbs of Dublin / Grubb Parsons 1830-1985". Backyard Voyager. p. 2. Archived from the original on 4 September 2011.
  8. Whipple Museum
    . University of Cambridge. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  9. Whipple Museum
    . University of Cambridge. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  10. doi:10.1046/j.1468-4004.2000.41516.x
    .
  11. Herstmonceux Observatory Science Centre
    . Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  12. ^
    Bibcode:1984MNSSA..43Q..26.
  13. ^ "The Radcliffe Telescope". UCL Observatory. 29 October 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
  14. ^
    ISSN 1476-4687
    .
  15. ^
    ISBN 9780486432656
    .
  16. ^
    Bibcode:1999JBAA..109..339S
    .
  17. ^ a b c d e f g Glass, Ian. "Telescopes made by Grubb Parsons (Partial list)". South African Astronomical Observatory. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  18. Bibcode:1938JRASC..32..362H
    .
  19. Bibcode:1938JRASC..32R.396H
    .
  20. Bibcode:1990S&T....80..136R
    . Retrieved 13 February 2023.
  21. ^ Armstrong, Simon; Bayman, Hannah (11 January 2014). "When Geordies reached for the stars". BBC News.
  22. ISBN 9780750304542
    .
  23. doi:10.1016/0083-6656(92)90001-m
    .

External links
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