Template:Short description Template:Infobox scientist Alvan Clark (March 8, 1804 – August 19, 1887) was an American astronomer and telescope maker.
BiographyEdit
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 Template:Convert at Dearborn Observatory at the Old University of Chicago (the lens originally intended for Ole Miss); also the two Template:Convert telescopes at the United States Naval Observatory and McCormick Observatory, the Template:Convert at Pulkovo Observatory, which was destroyed in the Siege of Leningrad (only the lens survives), the Template:Convert telescope at Lick Observatory (still the third-largest), and later the Template:Convert 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,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> including Mu Herculis, 8 Sextantis, and 95 Ceti.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name=deVaucouleurs1975>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In 1880, Clark was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
Image galleryEdit
- Portraits by Clark
- FemalePortrait ca1835 byAlvanClark MetropolitanMuseumOfArt.png
Portrait of an unidentified woman, c. 1835 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City)
- JohnPickering ca1840 byAlvanClark MFA Boston.png
Portrait of John Pickering, c. 1840 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
- SamuelHallGregory ca1840s byAlvanClark Smithsonian.png
Portrait of Samuel Hall Gregory, c. 1840s (Smithsonian, Washington D.C.)
- 1846 JosephStory byAlvanClark MFABoston.png
Portrait of Joseph Story, 1846 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- "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.
- Template:Cite DAB
- Warner, Deborah Jean. Alvan Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics. Washington, 1968.
External linksEdit
- National Gallery of Art has works by Clark
- Template:Cite NSRW