Sir Howard Grubb, Parsons and Co. Ltd. was a

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to obse ...

manufacturer, more commonly known as Grubb Parsons. It was based in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, in England. They were a noted telescope maker throughout the 19th and 20th century, making telescope throughout the World and some of the largest British telescopes, including one of their final projects, the

William Herschel Telescope The William Herschel Telescope (WHT) is a optical/near-infrared reflecting telescope located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. The telescope, which is named after William Hersc ...

in the 1980s. In the late 1800s they were one of the few companies that could make large doublet objective lenses.

History

The company was founded in

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 ...

by Thomas Grubb as the Grubb Telescope Company in 1833.Backyard Voyager Page 1
Thomas Grubb was joined in 1864 by his son

Howard Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

who built on the company's 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. The technology for doublets was not so easy to come by, Grubb purchased this technology from the maker Guinand in 1838, who ten years later would go to work from Grubb during the

1848 revolution The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europe ...

, according to ''History of Astronomy: An Encyclopedia''. Some of the telescopes produced in the 19th century include the Great Melbourne Telescope, a 48-inch-diameter (1.2 m)

reflecting telescope A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...

with speculum primary mirror, 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 ...

(1893), which is the UK's largest refractor, 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. In 1925 the company was acquired by

Sir Charles Parsons Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, (13 June 1854 – 11 February 1931) was an Anglo-Irish engineer, best known for his invention of the compound steam turbine, and as the eponym of C. A. Parsons and Company. He worked as an engineer on ...

and renamed. The company traded until 1985, designing and building the optical components for telescopes such as the

Anglo-Australian Telescope The Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) is a 3.9-metre equatorially mounted telescope operated by the Australian Astronomical Observatory and situated at the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, at an altitude of a little over 1,100 m. In 200 ...

UK Infrared Telescope The United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT) is a 3.8 metre (150 inch) infrared reflecting telescope, the second largest dedicated infrared (1 to 30 micrometres) telescope in the world. It is located on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i as part of Mauna ...

Isaac Newton Telescope The Isaac Newton Telescope or INT is a 2.54 m (100 in) optical telescope run by the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands since 1984. Originally the INT was situated at He ...

and the

, all of which are important astronomical instruments currently in use. A partial history of the company was written by its last managing director, George M. Sisson.

References

External links

Durham University Grubb Parson Lectures

Grubb and Parsons: Optical and engineering giants

Grubb Parsons telescope construction photos

compiled by I.S. Glass
The 36-inch telescope at Cambridge University
* Tyne & Wear Archives: Location of surviving records of Grubb Parsons {{Authority control Telescope manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in Newcastle upon Tyne British companies established in 1833 British companies disestablished in 1985 1833 establishments in England 1985 disestablishments in England

History

See also

References

External links