Sir Howard Grubb (28 July 1844 – 16 September 1931) was an optical designer from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, Ireland. He was head of a family firm that made large

optical telescope An optical telescope is a telescope that gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnified image for direct visual inspection, to make a photograph, or to collect data through elect ...

s, telescope drive controls, and other optical instruments. He is also noted for his work to perfect the

periscope A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position. In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...

and inventing the reflector sight.

Biography

Howard Grubb was one of eight children of

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, founder of the Grubb Telescope Company so Howard developed an early interest in

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...

. He began his studies in

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

in 1863, but did not complete his degree. After training to be a civil engineer, Howard joined his father's firm in 1864 and gained the reputation of a first class producer of telescopes. In 1871 he married Mary Walker with whom he had six children. Grubb was elected Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1883 and of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NG ...

in 1870. In 1876, he was awarded an honorary Masters in Engineering by Trinity College Dublin. In 1887 he was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

ed by

Lord Lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibilit ...

at Dublin castle. Sir Howard was a longtime member of the

Royal Dublin Society The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) ( ga, Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Átha Cliath) is an Irish philanthropic organisation and members club which was founded as the 'Dublin Society' on 25 June 1731 with the aim to see Ireland thrive culturally and economi ...

, serving as Honorary Secretary from 1889 to 1893, and as vice-president from 1893 to 1922. In 1912 he was awarded the medal of the Society, only the third person to receive it. Sir Howard Grubb died in 1931.

Optical work

Under Howard Grubb the Grubb Telescope Company gained an even greater reputation for quality

optical instrument An optical instrument (or "optic" for short) is a device that processes light waves (or photons), either to enhance an image for viewing or to analyze and determine their characteristic properties. Common examples include periscopes, microscopes, ...

s. Grubb was also known for building accurate electrically driven clock drives for

equatorial mount An equatorial mount is a mount for instruments that compensates for Earth's rotation by having one rotational axis, the polar axis, parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used for astronomical telescopes and cameras. The ...

ed telescopes. Some of the telescopes produced by Howard Grubb include the 27-inch refractor for the

Vienna Observatory The Vienna Observatory (german: Universitätssternwarte Wien) is an astronomical observatory in Vienna, Austria. It is part of the University of Vienna. The first observatory was built in 1753–1754 on the roof of one of the university buildings ...

(1878), the 10-inch refractor at Armagh Observatory (1882), the 28-inch refractor at the

Royal Observatory, Greenwich The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in ...

– the UK's largest refractor (1893), and the 10-inch refractor at Coats Observatory, Paisley (1898). In 1887 Grubb's firm built seven normal

astrograph An astrograph (or astrographic camera) is a telescope designed for the sole purpose of astrophotography. Astrographs are mostly used in wide-field astronomical surveys of the sky and for detection of objects such as asteroids, meteors, a ...

s for the

Carte du Ciel The Carte du Ciel (literally, 'Map of the Sky') and the Astrographic Catalogue (or Astrographic Chart) were two distinct but connected components of a massive international astronomical project, initiated in the late 19th century, to catalogue an ...

international photographic star catalogue project, 13-inch

refracting telescope A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses an ...

s all designed to produce uniform photographic plates. Reflector reflex sight howard grubb 1901

In 1900 Grubb invented the reflector or "reflex" sight,Nature, Volume 65, January 9,1902, edited by Sir Norman Lockyer, page 226
/ref> a non-magnifying optical sight that uses a

collimator A collimator is a device which narrows a beam of particles or waves. To narrow can mean either to cause the directions of motion to become more aligned in a specific direction (i.e., make collimated light or parallel rays), or to cause the spati ...

to allow the viewer looking through the sight to see an illuminated image of a

reticle A reticle, or reticule also known as a graticule, is a pattern of fine lines or markings built into the eyepiece of an optical device such as a telescopic sight, spotting scope, theodolite, optical microscope or the screen of an oscilloscop ...

or other pattern in front of them that stays in alignment with the device the sight is attached to (

parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby object ...

free). This type of sight has come to be used on all kinds of weapons from small

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

s to

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

. It is also at the heart of all modern

head-up display A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD (), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a pilot being able to view informa ...

s. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

the Grubb factory was in demand for the production of telescopic gun-sights and during this time he was credited with perfecting a

design for

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

submarines A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

References

External links

*
Royal Observatory, Greenwich, home of the 28-inch refractorPhotos of Grubb telescope constructionThe scientific transactions of the Royal Dublin Society By Royal Dublin Society – A NEW COLLIMATING TELESCOPE GUN SIGHT FOR LARGE AND SMALL ORDNANCE By SIR HOWARD GRUBB FRS Vice President Royal Dublin Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grubb, Howard 1844 births 1931 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Irish astronomers Irish inventors Optical engineers Telescope manufacturers Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society Knights Bachelor People from Monkstown, County Dublin

Biography

Optical work

See also

References

External links