Alvan Clark

Alvan Clark (March 8, 1804 – August 19, 1887) was an American astronomer and telescope maker.

Biography

Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Clark 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 Chance Brothers of Birmingham, England, and Feil-Mantois of Paris, France, his firm Alvan Clark & Sons ground lenses for refracting telescopes. Their lenses included the largest in the world at the time: the at Dearborn Observatory at the Old University of Chicago (the lens originally intended for Ole Miss); also the two telescopes at the United States Naval Observatory and McCormick Observatory, the at Pulkovo Observatory, which was destroyed in the Siege of Leningrad (only the lens survives), the telescope at Lick Observatory (still the third-largest), and later the at Yerkes Observatory, which remains the largest successful refracting telescope in the world.

Although not specifically searching for double stars, he did make a number of discoveries while testing his completed telescope objectives, including Mu Herculis, 8 Sextantis, and 95 Ceti. 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. 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.

In 1880, Clark was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.

See also

* List of astronomical instrument makers
* List of largest optical refracting telescopes

Image gallery

;Portraits by Clark

Image:FemalePortrait ca1835 byAlvanClark MetropolitanMuseumOfArt.png, Portrait of an unidentified woman, c. 1835 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City)
Image:JohnPickering ca1840 byAlvanClark MFA Boston.png, Portrait of John Pickering, c. 1840 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Image:SamuelHallGregory ca1840s byAlvanClark Smithsonian.png, Portrait of Samuel Hall Gregory, c. 1840s (Smithsonian, Washington D.C.)
Image:1846 JosephStory byAlvanClark MFABoston.png, Portrait of Joseph Story, 1846 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

References

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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.
*
* Warner, Deborah Jean. ''Alvan Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics''. Washington, 1968.

External links

National Gallery of Art
has works by Clark
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Alvan
1804 births
1887 deaths
American astronomers
Telescope manufacturers
Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
People from Ashfield, Massachusetts
Recipients of the Lalande Prize
Members of the American Philosophical Society