On its
completion he superintended the erection of the telescope, and
had the honour of directing it to several of the celestial
objects for the Queen and the Princess Alice, and answered their
many interesting questions as to the stars and planets within
sight.
Mr. Cooke was put to his mettle towards the close of his life. A
contest had long prevailed among telescope makers as to who
should turn out the largest refracting instrument. The two
telescopes of fifteen inches aperture, prepared by Merz and
Mahler, of Munich, were the largest then in existence. Their
size was thought quite extraordinary. But in 1846, Mr. Alvan
Clark, of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, U.S., spent his leisure
hour's in constructing small telescopes.[9] He was not an
optician, nor a mathematician, but a portrait painter. He
possessed, however, enough knowledge of optics and of mechanics,
to enable him to make and judge a telescope. He spent some ten
years in grinding lenses, and was at length enabled to produce
objectives equal in quality to any ever made.
In 1853, the Rev. W. E. Dawes--one of Mr. Cooke's customers --
purchased an object-glass from Mr. Clark. It was so satisfactory
that he ordered several others, and finally an entire telescope.
The American artist then began to be appreciated in his own
country. In 1860 he received an order for a refractor of
eighteen inches aperture, three inches greater than the largest
which had up to that time been made.
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